Watchman's Teaching Letter #174 October 2012

This is my one hundred and seventy-fourth monthly teaching letter and continues my fifteenth year of publication. I started this series entitled The Greatest Love Story Ever Told with WTL #137, and have been expanding on its seven stages ever since: (1) the courtship, (2) the marriage, (3) the honeymoon, (4) the estrangement, (5) the divorce, (6) the reconciliation, and (7) the remarriage.

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD, Part 33:

THE ESTRANGEMENT continued:

In the last lesson, #173, it was established that when Moses declared to Pharaoh, Exod. 4:22, “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Yahweh, Israel is my son, even my firstborn”, it might appear to be in the singular sense, but in reality Moses was speaking collectively of all the twelve tribes of Israel. Also with the last lesson, my objective was to carefully analyze all of Jeremiah chapter 2, with the subject of Israel’s “estrangement” from Yahweh in mind, but I was only able to cover verses 1 through 5. So, we shall begin where we left off with the last lesson, with Jer. 2:6-10:

⁶ Neither said they, Where is Yahweh that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? ⁷ And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. ⁸ The priests said not, Where is Yahweh? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. ⁹ Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith Yahweh, and with your children’s children will I plead. ¹⁰ For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.”

Adam Clarke in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, p. 256, states on verse 6: “Verse 6. Through the wilderness] Egypt was the house of their bondage: the desert through which they passed after they came out of Egypt, was a place where the means of life were not to be found; where no one family could subsist, much less a company of 600,000 men. God mentions these things to show that it was by the bounty of an especial providence that they were fed and preserved alive. Previously to this, it was a land through which no man passed, and in which no man dwelt. And why? because it did not produce the means of life; it was the shadow of death in its appearance, and the grave to those who committed themselves to it.”

Here, Clarke stating “600,000 men” may be somewhat correct if one were to also consider 600,000 women; one woman for each man. This number should also include a conservative estimate of 1,200,000 children, making the estimated number of Israelites 2,400,000. Other scholarly sources estimate the number of Israelites who were in the exodus out of Egypt to have been 2½ to 3 million.

Matthew Poole, in his 3-volume Commentary, vol. 2, p. 494, states on verse 6:

“Neither said, i.e. with themselves, thought not. Brought us up: the expression may have some respect to the situation of the place, as lying lower than Canaan; but the design is to reprove their sloth and stupidity, charging herein their apostasy, not upon their ignorance, but wilfulness; their deliverance from Egypt, and therefore is it here mentioned, being such a deliverance as never greater was wrought for any people, wherein there was so much of his power and love seen; they never regarded the operations of his hands, never concerned themselves about what God had done for them, ver. 8, which should have engaged them to a more close cleaving to him. Through a land of deserts; desolate places, chap. i. 13; and then what follows is to amplify the greatness of their dangers in the wilderness, and therein the greatness of their deliverance. And of pits; either those natural dangerous pits that were there; or put for the grave, where passengers are so often buried quick in the heaps of sand suddenly blown up by the wind; or threatening in every respect nothing but death, which may be implied in that expression of' the shadow of death in this verse, which may allude to several kinds or fears of death in passing through a wilderness. ... A land of drought, where they had no water but by miracle; the LXX. renders it a land without water. The shadow of death: ... the LXX. renders it a land without fruit, bringing forth nothing that might have a tendency to the support of life, therefore nothing but death could be expected; and besides, it yielding so many venomous creatures, as scorpions, and serpents, &c., as also the many enemies that they went in continual danger of; all which could not but look formidable, and as the shadow of death. That no man passed through, and where no man dwelt; as having in it no accommodation for travel, much less for habitation. In these respects may it well be called a waste howling wilderness, Deut. xxxii. 10.”

Matthew Henry, in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, p. 406, states on verse 6: “... He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and great terror (Deu. 4:34), and yet with a kind hand and great tenderness led them through a vast howling wilderness (v. 6), a land of deserts and pits, or of graves, terram sepulchralem – a sepulchral land, where there was ground, not to feed them, but to bury them, where there was no good to be expected, for it was a land of drought, but all manner of evil to be feared, for it was the shadow of death. In that darksome valley they walked forty years; but God was with them; his rod, in Moses’s hand, and his staff, comforted them, and even there God prepared a table for them (Ps. 23:4, 5), gave them bread out of the clouds and drink out of the rock. It was a land abandoned by all mankind, as yielding neither road nor rest. It was no thoroughfare, for no man passed through it – no settlement, for no man dwelt there. For God will teach his people to tread untrodden paths, to dwell alone, and to be singular. The difficulties of the journey are thus insisted on, to magnify the power and goodness of God in bringing them, through all, safely to their journey’s end at last ....”

Matthew Henry did quite well here, considering his Israelite blindness, but he really fouled-up his commentary by adding an untrue absurdity which I deleted from the above paragraph, stating: “All God’s spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for a safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, no less dangerous to the soul than that was to the body.” !!!THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “SPIRITUAL ISRAEL”!!!

This one sentence by Matthew Henry is substantial evidence that he taught universal personal salvation rather than Covenant Theology! Not only did he use the phrase “spiritual Israel” here, but I did an electronic search of his 6-volume Commentary, and I found that he used it seventy-one times in all. Then I did a search in the Libronix Digital Library containing hundreds of books, and I got 190 hits, including the Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume #’s 1 & 10. In Volume 1, Chapter 11: “The Law Abrogated; The New Testament Promised and Given by God.” it states:

“If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of Him who was crucified, Jesus Christ, and abide by their confession even unto death, and maintain piety. Moreover, by the works and by the attendant miracles, it is possible for all to understand that He is the new law, and the new covenant, and the expectation of those who out of every people wait for the good things of God. For the true spiritual Israel, and descendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham (who in uncircumcision was approved of and blessed by God on account of his faith, and called the father of many nations), are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we proceed.”

The Ante-Nicene Fathers goes back a long way, and it is evident that the flawed doctrine of personal salvation taking the place of Covenant Theology (or what is termed “replacement theology”) is nothing new. But it is contrary to all Scripture

In volume 10, book 1, at “1. How Christians are the Spiritual Israel” it states: “That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the Levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in various priestly and Levitical suborders. In the same manner, it appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in the aspect of the hidden man of the heart, that people which is called ‘Jew inwardly,’ and is circumcised in the spirit, has in a more mystic way the characteristics of the tribes.” [Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John.]

IT IS UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE, REGARDLESS OF HOW “MYSTICAL”, FOR A NON-ISRAELITE TO COME UNDER OUR EXCLUSIVE COVENANT! And the expression “Jew inwardly” is simply an absurd misnomer! How in the world did the converso Edomite-jews become all the twelve tribes of Israel? or even the tribe of Judah for that matter (as jews and Judah are two different entities)? It makes one wonder how many times Origen’s work might have been edited!

Romans 2:28-29 in the KJV reads: “²⁸ For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: ²⁹ But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

My personal unpolished paraphrase of this passage would read:

“²⁸ For a man who appears only as a Judahite outwardly may not be an authentic Judahite inwardly; and true circumcision consists not of something that is physical and external: ²⁹ The true Judahite is one who belongs to Yahweh in heart, and true circumcision is achieved in the heart, attained by the spirit, not the letter of the law; not for the favor of men, but the praise of Yahweh.”

Some might conjecture that Romans 2:28-29 excluded the other eleven tribes of Israel, but that is incorrect. Paul simply addressed this passage to the Romans because they were of the tribe of Zerah-Judah! Before I got sidetracked with the phrase “spiritual Israel”, I was working with Jer. 2:6-10, so let’s return to Jer. 2:7 which reads:

Jer. 2:7: “And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.”

Here the context is definitely addressing Israel’s “estrangement” from Yahweh after the fact. The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Old Testament), p. 1132, states concerning this:

“... Israel’s faithfulness to God, however, did not last. Jacob (a synonym for Israel, v. 4) followed worthless idols (v. 5; cf. vv. 8, 11; 8:19; 10:8, 14-15; 14:22; 16:19; 18:15; 51:17-18) forgetting that the Lord (sic Yahweh) had led them through the desert (2:6) into a fertile land. And the people defiled the land with their idolatry (v. 7).”

Matthew Poole, in his 3-volume Commentary, vol. 2, p. 494, states on verse 7:

“Plentiful country, Heb. land, of Carmel, Isa. xxix. 17; understand Canaan, Num. xiii. 27: see on Isa. xxxv. 2. To eat the fruit thereof and the goodness; to enjoy all the blessing of it. My land, i.e. consecrated to my name, Lev. xxv. 23; and this you have defiled by going a whoring after your idols, chap. iii. 1, and many other abominations, Psa. cvi. 29, 35, 37-39. Mine heritage; in the same sense that it is said in the foregoing clause my land, and which you received from me as your heritage, the place that I chose for my church’s present habitation, and earnest of their future heavenly one.”

To really get a good prophetic perception of the apostasy that the twelve tribes of Israel would eventually become involved with, and hasten her “estrangement” from her Husband, Yahweh, one should study Deut. 8:7-20. This will be necessarily a long quotation:

“⁷ For Yahweh thy Elohim bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; ⁸ A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; ⁹ A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. ¹⁰ When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless Yahweh thy Elohim for the good land which he hath given thee. ¹¹ Beware that thou forget not Yahweh thy Elohim, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: ¹² Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; ¹³ And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; ¹⁴ Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget Yahweh thy Elohim, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; ¹⁵ Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; ¹⁶ Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; ¹⁷ And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. ¹⁸ But thou shalt remember Yahweh thy Elohim: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. ¹⁹ And it shall be, if thou do at all forget Yahweh thy Elohim, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. ²⁰ As the nations which Yahweh destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of Yahweh your Elohim.”

With the Elijah message (Malachi 4:5-6, the last two verses in the Old Testament), the time is becoming short for we White Anglo-Saxon and related people to awaken and realize the fact that by-and-large we are the twelve lost tribes of Israel, and this admonition is for us to recognize our Christian Israel Identity (C.I.I.)! To comprehend why the twelve tribes of Israel finally became “estranged” from Yahweh her Husband, the explanation is at Jer. 2:8, where it states:

Jer. 2:8: “The priests said not, Where is Yahweh? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Old Testament), p. 1132, addresses this thusly:

“Jeremiah singled out the three groups charged with leading the nation and exposed their lack of obedience (v. 8). The priests who were to instruct the people in the ways of God did not know God, that is, they themselves did not have an intimate relationship with the One about whom they were teaching (see comments on ”knew“ in 1:5).

“The leaders (ro‘eh, lit., ‘shepherds’) were the political and civil leaders appointed by God to guide and protect the nation. In the early history of Israel this function was fulfilled by judges, but later the duty was assigned to kings. Ironically the ones who were to lead Judah were themselves in need of correction. They rebelled against the One who had appointed them to their task.

“The prophets were the third group charged with leading the nation. But instead of declaring God’s words of rebuke and correction, they prophesied by Baal and urged the people to follow worthless idols ... Baal was a Canaanite god of fertility whose worship was a constant thorn in Israel’s side (cf. 1 Kings 18:18-40; 2 Kings 10:18-28; 21:1-3.”

The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 660, states on v. 8:

“The priests said not ... (v. 8). The defection of the people was caused by their leaders. Law. Probably law in the broad sense of ‘instruction in the will of God.’ Knew me. The lack of the knowledge of God is a frequent theme of the prophets (cf. Hos. 4:6). What is meant is that the priests had deliberately rejected their God ‘in the knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life’ (cf. Jer. 31:34). Pastors. Hebrew ro‘eh has the basic meaning ‘shepherd’ and here should be translated rulers. Baal. The Canaanite storm-and fertility-god. Things that do not profit. This expression (like vanity, v. 5) is often used of idolatry, as here (cf. v. 11) .”

From Barnes’ Notes, Jer 2:8, p. 149, reads thusly:

“8. The guilt of this idolatry is ascribed to the four ruling classes. The accusation brought against (a) the priests is indifference. (b) ‘They that handle the law belonged also to the priestly class (Deut. xxxiii. 10). Their offence was that they knew not God. Cp. Mic. iii. 11. (c) The third class are the pastors or shepherds, that is the temporal rulers. Their crime is disobedience. (d) The fourth class are the prophets. It was their business to press the moral and spiritual truths of the law home to the hearts of the people: but they drew their inspiration from Baal, the Sun-god. Upon the corruption of the prophetic order at this time, see xiv. 13 note. things that do not profit] Here idols, which are merely unreal, but injurious. See 1 Sam. xii. 21; Isa. xliv. 9.”

The reference here, to Deut. 33:10, were the responsibilities assigned to the tribe of Levi:

Deut. 33:10: “They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.”

Micah 3:11: “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon Yahweh, and say, Is not Yahweh among us? none evil can come upon us.”

Jer. 14:13: “Then said I, Ah, Yahweh Elohim! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.”

1 Sam. 12:21: “And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.”

Isa. 44:9: “They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.”

This pretty well sums up the apostasy of Israel from Jeremiah’s day up until our present time, but in the next verse at Jer. 2:9, there is hope for our immediate future:

Jer. 2:9: “Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith Yahweh, and with your children’s children will I plead.”

I am convinced that the pleading of Jer. 2:9 is no other than the Christian Israel Identity (C.I.I.) message of our present time! As for Jer 2:10, I found only two commentaries that made sense which I will quote here. From Barnes’ Notes, Jer 2:10, p. 149, reads as follows:

“10. Kedar signifies the whole East, and the isles of Chittim (Isa. xxiii. 12 note) the West. If then you traverse all lands from West to East, it will be impossible to find any nation guilty of such apostasy as that committed by Israel.”

Matthew Poole, in his 3-volume Commentary, vol. 2, p. 494, states on verse 10:

“The isles of Chittim; a synecdochical expression, extending to all isles in the Mediterranean Sea, or any other of the neighbouring coasts; for the Hebrews call all people that are separated from them by the Mediterranean Sea ‘islanders’, because they come to them by shipping. See Chittim, Isa, xxiii. 1. Send unto Kedar; understand Arabia that lay east-south-east of Judea, as Chittim did more north or north-west: q.d. Go from north to south, east to west and make the experiment; look to Chittim, the most civilized, or Kedar, the most barbarous, yet neither have changed their gods. See if there be such a thing; not that they were to pass over locally, or send messengers thither actually but, q.d. Cast your eyes thither, and make your observations by what you have ever seen or heard, did you ever hear of such a prodigious thing? If you should either go or send, you will find it so.” [Note: “q.d.” = (in prescriptions) every day.]

Of lesser value, but still informative, Adam Clarke in his 6-volume Commentary, vol. 4, pp. 256-257, which states on verse 10:

“Verse 10. The isles of Chittim] This is the island of Cyprus, according to Josephus. In 1 Maccabees, chap. viii. 5, it is taken for Macedonia. Besides this how they (the Romans) had discomfited in battle Philip and Perseus, king of the Chittims. Chittim was the grandson of Japhet; and Bochart has made it appear that the countries inhabited by the Chittim were Italy and the adjacent provinces of Europe, lying along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; and probably this is the prophet’s meaning. [This oversimplifies the early Japhethite and ignores the later Israelite settlements of Europe. ed.]

“Send unto Kedar] The name of an Arabian tribe. See if nations either near or remote, cultivated or stupid, have acted with such fickleness and ingratitude as you have done! They have retained their gods to whom they had no obligation; ye have abandoned your God, to whom ye owe your life, breath, and all things!” [Note: I did an electronic search in William Whiston’s translation of Josephus, and could not find “Chittim”. If Whiston translated “Chittim” as “Cyprus”, he did it 14 times. The Roman empire was blindly called the “empire of the Chittim” by the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.]

For more data on this subject, I will cite The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol 1, pp. 1051-1052, where it states in part:

“CYPRUS ... Cyprus, a large island measuring roughly 140 by 60 miles, lies in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea south of Cilicia, with its major promontory thrusting toward Syria. In shape it looks like the flayed skin of an animal. In configuration it is a long plain closed on the north and southwest by mountain ranges, once heavily forested, but denuded in historical times by the same exploitation of natural timber resources which bared the Lebanon ranges, and changed the face of the whole Mediterranean basin (Ezek. 27:5, 6). The name Cyprus appears four times in the Old Testament (Isa. 23:1, 12; Jer. 2:10; Ezek. 27:6), and is transliterated as Kittim in four other passages (Gen. 10:4; Num. 24:24; 1 Chron. 1:7; Dan. 11:30). Kition, the old Phoenician foundation where Larnaka now stands, no doubt contains this name, though the area of geographical reference, both of Kittim and Kition, is difficult to determine exactly. The name Cyprus ... is of unknown origin, but gave a term for the metal for which, in the Bronze Age and in the heyday of Phoenician trade, the island was an important source. Copper from Cyprus and tin from Cornwall, carried in the holds of Phoenician ships, made the alloy bronze from which the 2nd millennium B.C. derived its historic name. It was for the sake of copper ore, no doubt, that the Phoenicians founded Kition and other trading centers in the island, and it was the same people who established the worship of the female deity, whom the Greeks called Aphrodite and the Romans named Venus. In both Greek and Latin, ‘the Cyprian’ was a common appellation for this goddess of fertility and carnal love ....”

Jeffrey Crosby, in his The first Open Church, Followers Of “The Way”, part 3, stated in part:

“For many years the Phoenicians of Cadis (largely Semites – Israelite tribes of Dan, Asher, Zebulun, Gad and Napthali) held a monopoly on the source of the British tin they transported. Quoting [E. Raymond] Capt: ‘They guarded their secret jealously.’ Confirmation of this is found in the writings of Strabo, who died A.D. 25: ‘Anciently the Phoenicians alone, from Cadis, engrossed this [tin] market, hiding the navigation from all others. When the Romans followed the course of a vessel that they might discover the situation, the jealous pilot willfully stranded the ship, misleading those who were tracing him to the same destruction. Escaping from the shipwreck, he was indemnified for his losses out of the public treasury.’ Tin is the main alloy in the making of bronze, and therefore it can be assumed that the inception of the Bronze Age can be attributed to the tin mines in Britain.”

[Note: Here Crosby was using data from William Finck (from his many studies and essays on the Greek Classics), especially the data that the Phoenicians were of the “Israelite tribes of Dan, Asher, Zebulun, Gad and Napthali.” If one is not aware of this very important detail, he might want to make a note of it, and place the note someplace where it could be easily found.] This wraps-up our analysis of Jeremiah 2:6-10. Isn’t it simply amazing how much can be found on each and every verse of Scripture; especially verses like Jer. 2:10? It shows there’s a big difference between just reading the Bible, as opposed to doing a comprehensive study of each and every item found therein! To finish such a project would take at least a thousand years, so none of us will accomplish everything that needs to be addressed in a single mortal lifetime. We will now consider Jer. 2:11-12:

Jer. 2:11-12: “¹¹ Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. ¹² Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith Yahweh.”

For an appraisal of Jer. 2:11, I will cite three sources. The first will be Matthew Poole in his 3-volume Commentary, vol. 2, p. 494, where he comments on verse 11:

“Hath a nation changed their gods? q.d. No, they are unmovable and fixed to their idols, although they are false gods; what they receive from their fathers they tenaciously hold. Their glory, viz. the true God, who was their glory, a metonymy of the adjunct, Psa. cvi. 20; and who always did them good, giving them cause to glory in him, and to make their boast of him. For that which doth not profit; for those which never did or can do them good, that have no essence or power; but of whom they must necessarily be ashamed, as ver. 26.”

From Barnes’ Notes, Jer 2:11, p. 150, reads thusly:

“11. a nation] A Gentile [sic non-Israel] nation, in strong antithesis to people, the appellation of Israel. their glory] Though the worship of the one true God is a nation’s greatest glory, yet it is irksome because it puts a constraint on human passions. that which doth not profit] Israel had exchanged the prosperity which was God’s reward of obedience for the calamities which resulted from idol-worship.”

From the 6-volume Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, vol. 4, p. 5, we read:

“11. glory – Jehovah [sic Yahweh], the glory of Israel (Psa. cvi. 20; Rom.. i. 23). The Shekinah or cloud resting on the sanctuary, was the symbol of ‘the glory of the Lord [sic Yahweh]’ (1 Ki. viii. 11; cf. Rom. xi. 4). The golden calf was intended as an image of the true God (cf. Exod. xxxii. 4, 5, ‘These be thy gods (Hebrew, Elohim), O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt. To-morrow is a feast to the Lord [sic Yahweh];’ yet it is called an ‘idol’ – Acts vii. 41, ‘They made a calf, and offered sacrifice unto the idol’). It (like Roman Catholic images) was a violation of the second commandment, as the heathen multiplying of gods is a violation of the first. not profit – (v. 8).”

We find a few Scriptural passages in these commentaries which should be cited here:

Psa. 106:20: “Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.”

1 Ki. 8:[10-]11: “¹⁰ And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, ¹¹ So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of Yahweh had filled the house of Yahweh.

Rom. 11:4: “But what saith the answer of Yahweh unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.”

Exod. 32:4-5: “⁴ And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. ⁵ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to [our self existent one], Yahweh³⁰⁶⁸.”

Here, Aaron was as much as telling the Israelites that when Moses went up to meet Yahweh in the mountain, that Yahweh was a calf, and they believed him. In other words, the “feast day to morrow” would have been a feast-day to the golden calf instead of Yahweh! As there is not enough room remaining here to address Jer. 2:12, I will have to save that for the next lesson, WTL #175.

This whole story is a sad state-of-affairs, and is a loathsome narrative to bring to mind, for our ancestors, the twelve tribes of Israel, had a propensity to be unfaithful to her Husband, Yahweh, seemingly without end. But are we White Anglo-Saxon and related descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel any different? Our history for the last 3,800 years loudly proclaims a resounding NO! So we gave our Almighty Husband, Yahweh, no other alternative but to issue all Israel, including their offspring, a writ of divorce! Hosea 2:2-6 states:

“² Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; ³ Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. ⁴ And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. ⁵ For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. ⁶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.”

Therefore, we were to be put-away and punished for “seven times”, Lev. 26:18-19: “¹⁸ And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times (i.e., 2,520 years) more for your sins. ¹⁹ And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass ....” Question: Are we at this juncture today, or will these three things happen sometime in the future? I am not a prophet; I only try to understand what the prophets have already written!