Provoked to Jealousy and Birth

Last year I decided to read through the bible front to back, a decision I have made many times in the past and always ended up going back to my comfy place, the Psalms and/or Epistles.

But this time I have really stuck with it, a huge part of the reason has been that I didn't limit myself to one chapter a day. It's amazing how doing less can actually steal your motivation faster. It seems easier, but trust me, it's not.

Anyway, so I've gotten up to Ezekiel. While I was having fun trotting through all the symbolism in Ezekiel 8 this morning, I made a connection which I thought was pretty cool.

The chapter starts off with a being (angel, Holy Spirit, not really sure) appearing to Ezekiel and leading him through the temple. They start off at the door of the north gate of the inner court, it says, "where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy."

“Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door. And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” So I went in and saw, and there—every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls. And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ” And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz."

I'll just interrupt here to explain that Tammuz was a "god of fertility," who had supposedly been banished to the underworld. I don't know if at this point in history they actually experienced a problem with childbearing, but the idea was that the fertility god was gone and no longer able to help them.

"Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east. And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity;and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.” (Ezekiel‬ ‭8:1-18‬)

It seemed like there should be some significance in the order of the abominations shown to Ezekiel, since they started at the gate of the court, dug through the wall to find a door which they went into, and then went further still into the inner court of the Lord's house.

So naturally, I thought about lists which might match the "list" being built in this chapter. My first

thought was Egypt, Tammuz reminded me of their various fertility gods, and the sun worship reminded me of Ra. With the ten plagues, God attacked their gods by directly attacking that which their gods supposedly protected. (Ex: the darkness which covered the land, and the death of all the firstborn children)

After the plagues, God led His people out of Israel and gave them the Ten Commandments, which is where I looked.

What I found was that the list of the Ten Commandments did not match up with the four abominations Ezekiel saw, but interestingly, everything seemed to be covered in "the first and greatest commandment."

"And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus‬ ‭20:1-6‬)

"You shall have no other gods before Me." Like the idols they were burning incense to in the temple.

"Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above..." Like the sun they were worshipping with their
backs to the temple.

"...or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to 
them nor serve them." Like the animals they were also burning incense to.

"For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God..." Reminds me of the seat of jealousy which provokes to jealousy.

"...visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me..." Was Tammuz banished, or was God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children?



I don't know if this really has any intended significance, but here are some ideas I've been thinking about.

When God revealed the Ten Commandments, He had just led His people out of oppression, they were ready and willing to follow Him, they had a good future ahead. But God knew already then, that by Ezekiel's time, they would be doing the exact things He told them not to do. Yet the promise He offered was the same.

The way the two passages align is very similar, but the way they end is very different.

"Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in 
My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

"but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

It sort of looks like the "Old Testament God" vs "New Testament God," but the great thing to realize is that the mercy one was written first. In foresight of all that would happen, "Old Testament God" promised that He would always punish evil, like He did in Ezekiel's time, and would always show mercy to those who broke the pattern of curse and chose to love Him.

Ezekiel and the Ten Commandments seems like a weird discussion at Christmas, but I actually think it ties in perfectly with this celebration.
We have provoked God to jealousy, we have broken His covenant and turned to other sources for what He promised to give us. He led us out of (figurative) Egypt and we turned right back to Egypt's chains.

His solution for us was to come and be born humbly in every possible respect, be raised among the children of the people who had exchanged Him for gods of wood and stone, and die the death of a criminal, amongst criminals, by the hands of criminals.

But He was not the sort of God that could be banished to the underworld, He rose again, proving to us that if death itself could not keep His love from us, who were we to think we could?

Merry Christmas friends. :)



Also...

Guess what? I'm going to Mississippi! The plan is to go to a summer dance intensive by one of my favorite companies, Ballet Magnificat, in July of 2018. To do that, I will need to raise some money, so if you would like to support my trip, you can check out my GoFundMe campaign HERE. Thanks in advance!

~Keturah

Cunningly Devised Fables

With lots of time and little to do, I tend to roam the internet for some fairytale or other, and Tuesday's gem was a whole boatload of Norse myths.

They kept me entertained for about an hour before I stumbled upon one that seemed strangely familiar.

The story was how Odin, in his search for wisdom, sacrificed himself in order to prove himself worthy of the runes.

The Runes were supposed to essentially be these ancient magical scripts which would make one wise. (that's a very rough description. If you're offended because you know all about Norse myths, forgive me)

Anyway, in order to prove himself worthy, he hung himself on a tree and stabbed himself with a spear. There he hung, teetering on the brink of death for nine days and nine nights, until at last the Runes revealed themselves to him.

I couldn't help but think of someone else who was pierced by a spear and hung on a tree.

After seeing that initial parallel, I wondered where this legend came from. Was it indeed just a story that a father once told his son, or did it actually come from somewhere else? An older story, or an actual event in history. So I did a little research.

Odin was called "the most powerful and wisest god," "the Allfather of the Norse gods and the ruler of Asgard."

There are obviously a million differences between Odin and God, (Odin was married to the goddess Frigg, had one eye, and had wolves and ravens that brought him information, to name a few) so I'm not trying to say they are the same or anything. But I do want to look at the parallels between the story of Christ's crucifixion and this story which may or may not have originated there, you can draw your own conclusions.

Some tellings of this particular story say that Odin actually died, and was revived when the Runes appeared, but in either case, he was very near death.

As he saw the Runes coming, it says he screamed.

.....And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (Matthew 27:50)

Just sayin.'

After this sacrifice, he allegedly wrote a poem about it, which was added to a huge collection of Norse legends and poetry, called the Poetic Edda.

This is a direct quote from the Poetic Edda:

 I ween that I hung on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Othin, (Odin) myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs.

I LOVE to look really far into things, which may or may not have significance, so I was quite delighted to find that Odin hung on the tree, "teetering on the precipice that separates the living from the dead," (quote from Norse Mythology for Smart People: norse-mythology.org) for 3 x 3 days.

An offering of "myself to myself."

The way human sacrifices were made to Odin was exactly this way. The person was hung on a tree and stabbed with a spear, so by doing that to himself, it was like a sacrifice to himself.

Much like God sacrificed Jesus, (who was God) as a sacrifice on behalf of us, to Himself.

An offering of Himself to Himself.

"On the tree that none may ever know what root beneath it runs."

None may ever know, and none will, because He was the only one who could pay that price.

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him— For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever— That he should continue to live eternally, And not see the Pit. (Psalms 49:7-9)

The tree that Odin hung on was called Yggdrasil. The most common translation is "Tree of Ash," but literally translated, it means "The Ash Tree of the Horse of Yggr."

Yggr means "The Terrible One." (Yggr was also commonly used as another name for Odin, even to the point where Yggdrasil would be translated, "Odin's Horse."

Terrible doesn't necessarily mean bad. Especially in old English, it meant great, mighty, awesome.

So "Ash" and "The Terrible One," made sense to me, but the horse was confusing.

My first thoughts were to the horses in Revelation, but then I looked up more verses with horses, and had another thought.

(again, I may be looking too far, but hey, it was fun.)

And Miriam answered them: "Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!" (Exodus 15:21)

I have always seen a parallel between the exodus from Egypt and our freedom from sin.

The Israelites were in captivity in Egypt, (we were in captivity in sin) God led them away and into the Promised Land. (God led us away and gave us salvation)

The place in the middle is what I want to talk about here, where God threw horse and rider into the sea.

The Red Sea, you can see as the way by which God brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Jesus' death was the way by which He brought us out of sin and into salvation.

So what, or who, is the horse, being thrown into the sea?

Jesus.

The Egyptians were the enemies of God's people, and it was by their sin that they and the horses they rode were sentenced to death.

The horses suffered death because of the people they carried on their backs, not because of anything they had done.

Jesus suffered death because of the sin that He carried on His back, not because of anything He had done.

So the tree, Yggdrasil.

The Ash Tree of the Horse of the Terrible One.

The Ash Tree of the Horse of God.

The Ash Tree of the Sacrifice of God.

The Death Tree of the Son of God.

As much fun as it is to explore myths and legends though, it's important to remember which copied which.

Because "We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (II Peter 1:16)

Percy Jackson (Warning: Spoilers)

I just finished reading Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.

For anyone who does not know what this book is, it's the first in a series about modern Greek mythology, the main character being Percy, who is the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman.

I had mixed emotions about the book. It was intriguing, funny, mostly I would say a good book. On the other hand I couldn't get past a few things about the Greek mythology, because I am a Christian and it is contradictory to what I believe.

But laying that aside, I learned a few things from reading it.

First thing's first, I noticed a distorted version of the truth portrayed. Not just in this book, but in all Greek mythology, there tends to be a male god who has a child with a mortal woman, and the son is the hero of the story. Familiar? It sounds a whole lot like Jesus, being the Son of God and Mary, and being the "hero of the story." The difference is this, the children born of the gods of Greek mythology are half god and half man, and they are born because of immorality, most of the time.

Jesus was FULLY God, and FULLY man, and He was born of a righteous, perfect God, and a virgin.

The key points are left out, but other than that the story is basically the same. Interesting how Satan created a near replica of the truth for the Greeks to believe.

Another thing I noticed was this,

Percy goes to a camp called Camp Half-Blood, where they train all of the demi-gods. When he gets there he meets a lot of kids who are hurting, they feel depressed and sort of rejected, because their god-parent doesn't seem to care about them. Percy had the same sort of feeling, and it is totally reasonable, we naturally want to have a relationship with our parents. I think if we had a parent who was a god and they really didn't care if we lived or died or if they ever got to see us, we would feel rejected too.

I don't remember if Percy says it, or how the message gets across, but there is an attitude of, "It's not unreasonable for our parents to not care about us, they are gods. They have more important things I worry about."

Percy spends a loooong time journeying before he gets to meet his father, but when he does he only gets to see him for about two minutes and then he has to leave. He leaves knowing that may be his last time ever seeing him.

I have grown up hearing Pastors say that God is a personal God. I know that. It does mean a lot to me, but I can't really grasp the full meaning because I have grown up having the emphasis on how personal He is, and not how sovereign He is.

But I realized as I read the book that God is every bit as God as these gods are, and waaaaay more. Yet He doesn't ignore His children. He wants us, He wants a relationship with us.

And the other thing is that we don't have to make a long perilous journey to talk to Him for two minutes! (and be afraid of whether He will punish us for wasting His time) We get to be with Him 24/7!

Our God is so much better than the Greek gods.