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Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—
to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever” Isaiah 56:3-8
Eunuchs, of course, were males who had all or part of their genitals removed. If you want to be shocked do a google search on the methods used to create a Eunuch… fascinating and shocking.
In Deuteronomy 23:1 we find that Eunuchs had limitations on their spiritual service…
“No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord”
After the conversions on Pentecost and after Simon the sorcerer and other Samaritans were converted an un-named Ethiopian was baptized and he was a Eunuch. That was no accident.
The Jews did not like Samaritans (foreigners) and Eunuchs carried a social and spiritual stigma among the Jews. And what does God do? He brings them into his fold of beloved sheep to demonstrate that there is a new Law in town.
And on that day and in that moment Isaiah’s prophecy came true.
Thank God that Jews weren’t the decision makers for who God would save… because it wouldn’t be foreigners or Eunuchs.
During the time of the Prophet Jeremiah and the reign of Josiah, King of Judah, a forgotten “Book of the Law” was found.
When it was read to King Josiah it shook him to the core and caused him not only to do away with all the idolatry and evil that had been tolerated and even promoted by previous kings but also to reinstate the Passover celebration… just as God had commanded Moses.
All of these prescribed regulations had been found in the forgotten “Book of the Law” that they accidentally stumbled across in some forgotten room of the Temple.
The text continues that this celebration of the Passover, in the 18th year of Josiah’s reign, had not been observed “like this” since the days of the Prophet Samuel. Samuel was prophet during the reigns of King Saul and King David. Josiah was the 16th King of Judah. That’s a long time not to celebrate the Passover as prescribed in the “Book of the Law” Think about what that means! Even King Solomon (among others) didn’t celebrate the Passover properly.
What would happen if we lost the “Book of Jesus Christ”? Perhaps buried on some shelf with hundreds of other books. Perhaps sitting on our night stands… un-opened, un-read and never fully understood.
What would happen if suddenly we opened the “Book of Jesus Christ” and found in it all the solutions for the problems in our lives and began to make corrections?
And then we stumbled across some directions in the “Book of Jesus Christ” for the New Testament Passover… the Lord’s Supper.
Imagine the turn from unfulfilled and bankrupt lives to lives of being blessed because we took a book off of the shelf and off of the nightstand and put it where it belongs… in our hearts.
Several years ago when I was still doing large animal work I was called out to a place on the Nueces river bottom to pull a dead calf out of a heifer. It was in July and it was pretty hot. The owner and I snubbed the heifer up to a post and I attached my “calf puller” to the calves front feet and gave it a pull. But the heifer too small and the calf too big for it to come out. So I attached the puller to one of the front legs and cut around the skin and pulled the leg off but the calf still wouldn’t come out. So I took the other leg off and attached my puller to the head. This time I got most of the calf out but the calve’s hips wouldn’t pass through the pelvic canal… it was “hip locked” So with the calf under tension I severed the calf so that just the hips and back legs were left in the heifer. So I reached inside and turned the back half around (no easy feat) so I could attach my puller to the back legs… it still wouldn’t pull. So then I pulled off one of the back legs and was able to attach to the remaining leg and deliver the calf out successfully.
I had not only been fighting the dead calf but also 100 degree heat and dust and fire ants. I think we charged less than $100 in those days but I was pretty happy with myself… not only the knowledge part of it but also the physicality part of it. Plus I had saved the heifer. I was the hero.
A couple of months later the rancher came into the clinic with another cow problem and asked to speak about it with the Veterinarian who owned the practice.
I was shocked, I had laid it all out for that guy and figured I had built some kind of loyalty and yet there was none… no loyalty whatsoever.
Here’s what I learned from that… don’t worry about what others think of you… just do your best and move on and let the Lord value and bless you.
I find that as an optimist I am frequently disappointed and only occasionally surprised. But I’ve never been disappointed in the Lord and am frequently pleasantly surprised by Him. Remember that in everything we do we are working for the Lord not some other human being.
“This is my covenant with you… every male among you shall be circumcised… it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you…. any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.” Genesis 17.
Circumcision is not required in the New Covenant. In the New Covenant we are “marked” with the Holy Spirit which is received at baptism. Acts 2:38.
“you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…” Ephesians 1:13-14.
Circumcison was a physical “mark” performed by men. They marked themselves.
The gift of the Holy Spirit was a “mark” given by God for those believers who chose to be baptized. He did the marking.
Circumcision was only for men… not women… but the Holy Spirit was given to all mankind… men and women equally.
In the Old Testament if you refused to be circumcised you were not part of Gods people.
In the New Testament if you refuse the Holy Spirit… given at baptism… then you also refuse and disrespect God and are not part of his people.
God marks his people today not based on ethnicity but based on belieficity. Let’s all believe and obey!
In Matthew 18, Jesus was teaching his disciples about forgiveness and he told them that if they were forgiving then they would be forgiven but if they were not forgiving then they would not be forgiven.
And then Jesus illustrated that concept with a story. A guy owed the King 10,000 talents of silver (presumably silver) which was such a vast debt that there was no way he could repay. Long story short, the King through his grace forgave the debt because the debtor asked for it to be forgiven.
But then the recently forgiven dude found one of his debtors who owed far less and choked his neck and had him thrown in prison when he could not repay.
Anyway, word (as it often does) got back to the King and the King calls in the dude and says why didn’t you forgive like I forgave you? No answer. The King loses his temper and delivers the dude to be tortured.
The story concludes with Jesus’ admonition to his disciples that the same thing would happen to them if they didn’t give heart felt forgiveness.
Now some might think about the King as being a sort of “Indian Giver”. The King extended grace and forgave but later takes the forgiveness back. It wasn’t permanent, irrevocable forgiveness.
It was a kind of conditional grace… conditioned based on the believers actions.
Get this… God can take his grace back and threatened the 12 disciples with that very thing… they could be delivered to the “torturers”
And if the twelve Disciples could be delivered to the torturers then so could we. Appreciate God’s free gift of grace and live lives worthy of it… be forgiving from your hearts.
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught”
God spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah about the people of Israel. It states a premise that is still true today. The premise that Christians would rather follow the teachings of human beings than the teachings of God.
Here’s the problem. The Preachers teaching human-things think they are teaching God-things. And the listeners think the human-things are God-things.
Let me suggest a few clues…
If the message isn’t consistent with the over riding message in God’s word of “love”, i.e. love God with your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself then there might be a problem.
If a congregation is diminishing and dying under a certain brand of teaching and leadership then there might be a problem.
Everyone thinks they are following God’s teaching but many and maybe most are not. So be very circumspect and careful about the teachings you are about to swallow… they may not digest very well.
King Hezekiah of Judah was a great King. It was said of him that no King of Judah was like him either before or after because he trusted in the Lord.
Hezekiah tried to unify Judah and Israel by inviting everyone to celebrate the Passover together. But there were a few problems… they couldn’t celebrate during the prescribed (God ordained) time because the people had not gathered and the Priests were not purified.
So Hezekiah sent out couriers to gather the people. Some of the people ridiculed the message and ridiculed the messengers but others gathered and there was a huge crowd of worshippers.
However there was another problem… not only were the Priests to purify themselves but the people were also supposed to come “purified” and were not.
There was so much that was wrong… the wrong month, Unclean Priests and Unclean Participants. In fact the only thing that was right was the hearts of the people.
Hezekiah could have been angry and condemned the Priests and the People but instead he prayed for them because his bigger mission was “unifying the people” and God heard his prayer.
"There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. The priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place”
I’ve got a feeling that under King Hezekiah’s rule that a year later at the next Passover everything was right… the right time, purified Priests and Purified people. Sometimes people need time and some things may have to be temporarily sacrificed to fulfill the greater mission but it all starts with pure hearts and great leaders.
One of the more significant things that occurs in the story of Jesus is his baptism, reception of the Holy Spirit and the announcement of his sonship.
Let me suggest that it is significant because it is a forecast of exactly what happens with Christians.
Believers are told to repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Jesus had no need to repent but was baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon him and he started his Spirit driven ministry. We too have a ministry in association with the Holy Spirit.
If this is true, that Jesus’ example is a pattern for all of us, then the question is begged why do so many baptize babies?
- Jesus was not baptized as a baby
- babies have no sins that need to be washed away
- babies don’t begin a ministry being led by the Holy Spirit to do battle with Satan
It also begs the question about why so many diminish baptism (to elevate the importance of belief) by putting baptism off for a more convenient time.
- the Holy Spirit doesn’t come at the point of belief. It comes at the point of baptism when the believer has had all his sins washed away and is a cleansed Temple in which the Holy Spirit can dwell in.
- Why would some choose to delay baptism and delay the reception of the Holy Spirit?
If baptism announces to the spirit world our sonship and the beginning of our ministry why would we be satisfied with belief and the “sinners prayer” as is advocated by some.
- If we are true sons and daughters (and he testifies to that by giving his Holy Spirit) why live in fear?
Rejoice in the relationship and don’t worry that God is just looking for you to make some mistake that if not confessed will send you to eternal damnation.
We are true sons and daughters of the most Holy One. Live like Him and be Him and be a light to the world.
Belief, repentance and baptism are essential elements to become children of God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
Numbers 12 records that Miriam and Aaron “spoke” against Moses saying that they were equal to him in being Prophet’s.
That’s what it looked like on the surface but the divine record reveals something about their hearts. Moses had married a Cushite woman and they didn’t like her. The ancient land of Cush is today’s Ethiopia. Now if the people of Cush resembled the people of Ethiopia today then they were black people and the rest of the story confirms that.
Miriam and Aaron didn’t like Zipporah, their sister-in-law, because she was black.
Before we get to their punishment the divine record states that Moses was the most humble man in the land. Obviously, Miriam and Aaron were not humble because they tried to equate or elevate themselves above Moses.
Now on to the punishment. God punishes Miriam (the apparent ringleader) by striking her with Leprosy and her skin became “as white as snow”
That God… Miriam disliked black people and thought she was better because she was white so God made her really white… as white as snow. How do you like being white now Miriam?
What can be learned from this?
- Sometimes when people make an accusation they may have an ulterior motive.
- If you dislike someone because of their race you are not being humble (like Moses was humble)
- God rocks with punishment and makes the punishment fit the crime.
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Allen Land's obituary. He and Ulli were close friends of our family.
Allen was born in Houston, the 4th child of Emmett Land Sr and Murlene VanHowten.
He grew up along the Texas Gulf Coast and joined the Army after High School. He signed up for the Army Rangers because they paid more, and experienced political and military conflict around the world. He served in multiple combat operations and survived two helicopter crashes. He was once told by a commanding officer, “Mr. Land, you are a hard man to kill.”
He met Ulli while stationed in Germany in 1977. They were married in 1979, and settled in Houston, in a furnished apartment on Wirt Road, and rode bicycles to work because they couldn’t afford a car. They even rode their bikes to the Galleria as newlyweds to do their Christmas shopping there. As finances got better, they first got a motorcycle, and later a small car.
They had no TV and started reading and discussing the Bible together. With their first child on the way, they looked for a church that reflected the teachings of the New Testament.
Allen loved to read and was interested in Philosophy, Religion, History, Politics, Sci-Fi, Romance, and Fiction. He remembered everything he read and heard, including names, places, phrases and dates. He loved music, art and movies.
God’s word was Allen’s passion. He never ceased to study to learn more about the character of God.
Very early in his Christian life, he came across the teachings of Francis A. Schaeffer. They became defining in his understanding of Christianity and the world around us.
Just last year, he found several Bible commentaries he had always wanted at a fraction of their original price. He was so thrilled and bought them and read them. But the two small commentary books by E. M. Zerr remained his favorite.
Allen said, “The Bible is not complicated, and God is not like us. We must take him at His word and do what he tells us to do. He is merciful and wants us to be saved, and he has done it all for us. We only need to “get in the water” (Acts 2:38), and for some reason, people dance around that and try to explain it away.”
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? …” (Job 40:2)
I said, it is like the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19, and he asked me to read it.
We had this conversation Friday morning before he just started sleeping all the time, and as the end was drawing near.
I told him, we are standing at the river Jordan, and God will part the waters for you, and you will go on into the Promised Land (Joshua 3). We will not need a boat or a boatsman, God has done it all for us when he sent his son to die for our sins and offered us forgiveness and salvation. We have accepted his gift and put our faith in God and His word.
“The duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
Allens favorite book in the Bible was Ephesians.
Allen leaves behind his wife Ulli; children Stephanie, Cedric, Katina and husband Mario with grandchildren Ebba, Leo, and Emmy; sister Georgia Kay and brother Emmett Land Jr; nieces Mary, Melissa, Jessica, and Kate; nephews Kenneth and Rodney.
He was preceded in death by his parents, oldest sister Lillie; youngest brother Ricky; and nephews John and Jack.
They say that Socrates liked to educate his students by asking questions that required his students to think rather than spoon feed his students answers to be memorized.
It’s easy to see the logic in that because as teachers we are developing brains not robots.
As students of the Bible we are in essence teaching ourselves as we read and study. So, like Socrates, we should ask ourselves questions about what we read and not rely primarily on others to supply answers.
Some of the questions I asked myself as I was studying the Book of Esther was how much was God’s hand in these events and why was it important for Esther to become queen.
My guess is that God’s hand was in the whole thing… the raising up of King Ahasuerus, Queen Vashti’s deposition, the rise of Haman and of course the role of Esther and Mordecai. 100% of it.
If true that leads to the second socratic question… why did God do it?
The queenship of Esther was after the first return of the jewish exiles and before the second and third returns of the exiles.
One possibility of why God stepped in was to not only prevent the extermination of the Jews but also to pave the way for them to go back to Judea.
Another possibility was to facilitate the spread of the Good News of Salvation by the Apostles. The Apostles were able to spread the Gospel because of a healthy educated Jewish population in the succeeding Roman Empire with Synagogues ready for the Apostles preaching.
Ask yourselves plenty of questions and ask your students plenty of questions or you and they might end up like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz lamenting that you don’t have a brain.
The story of Esther has been framed as a “beauty” contest. It was nothing of the sort it was a “Queen” contest.
In beauty contests everyone gets to go home. With Esther and the other girls, no one was going home. You either won the prize of being queen or you were a concubine of the King. Both honorary positions but obviously the queenship was the best.
When I was applying for Veterinary school there were about 1000 applicants for 130 places. The selection criteria was based on academics, experience with animals and an interview. I applied three times before I got in. I guess I wasn’t the prettiest the first two times. That was better odds (1 in 8) than with Esther (1 in 127).
By the way… Esther was not only a willing participant but actively tried to win the queenship… she didn’t just want to be a concubine.
Every girl had one night with the king to try to impress him and win the queenship. Keep in mind that King Ahasuerus was no sexual novice and had probably experienced every kind of sex that a woman could offer.
Esther had an advantage that the other girls did not have. She had Hegai the overseer on her side. The scriptures state that Esther “found favor” with Hegai and he counseled her.
Imagine if you were Hegai and you had the ability to do a post-interview with all these young ladies. Also if you could talk to King Ahasuerus afterwards… what did you like about this girl? What did you dis-like? Anyway, Hegai was an expert on the tastes of King Ahasuerus relating to what he liked in women and he was careful to use that knowledge to instruct Esther. Like maybe Ahasuerus’ favorite perfume.
Of course all these young women were virgins and therefore sexually naive. So it must have been something other than sex that impressed Ahasuerus with Esther. Perhaps her spirituality, her innocence, her brain… maybe as a child of God his inability to intimidate her. Maybe even Ahasuerus knew that beauty and sex were not the most important qualities to be Queen of the Persian Empire.
I guess we’ll never know but what we do know is that Esther won and became queen of the Persian Empire.
Let’s not frame the story as a “beauty” contest and spiritually confuse and handicap our young Bible students. Esther was in a contest to become Queen of Persia and protect God’s people the Jews.
In Luke 19, Jesus was asked a question about the coming of the Kingdom… because they thought it was coming immediately.
So in typical Jesus fashion he answers with a parable. The Parable of the Minas. There are two things going on in this parable.
The first thing is about a fellow that is going to a distant land to receive a Kingdom. While on the way the citizens of the Kingdom send a message that they don’t want him ruling over them. At the end of the Parable the fellow has the citizens killed.
The second thing is that the fellow going to receive the Kingdom gives three of his workers 10 Minas each. A Minas is about three months wages. He instructed them to invest their Minas’ and there would be an accounting when he got back. Two of the workers did well and were rewarded. The third one did not do well with his Minas and was punished with death.
So how does this parable answer the original question concerning if the Kingdom was coming immediately?
The fellow receiving the Kingdom was Jesus. The ones who rejected him were the Jewish Leaders. Jesus had them killed in the year AD 70.
The three workers were Jesus’ people. He had expectations for them. They had to perform. If they did, in the coming of the Heavenly Kingdom they would be rewarded. If they did not then punishment awaits.
Jesus obviously told them a lot more than what they were asking. The coming of the Kingdom had some markers… punishment for those who rejected and killed him and a standard of conduct to be a citizen in the upcoming kingdom.
Make “mas” not “menos” with your “minas”
A mother spent time vacuuming her house daily. Anytime she saw dirt, dog hair, shavings or crumbs she quickly grabbed her vacuum to remove the mess. Sometimes the mother would have to pull her vacuum out multiple times a day in order to keep the floors spotless.
Her husband and children would moan and groan about her turning that loud vacuum on… not understanding the importance of a clean house. One day they asked, “Mom, why do you like to vacuum so much?”
She answered, “To you it has been granted to understand the mystery. You see, our hearts are like a house. Sometimes, dirt or sin can creep in. We must be diligent in removing that sin immediately. When you don’t get that trash out it is left to spread and pile higher. We need to keep our hearts pure and clean by vacuuming them daily, sometimes even multiple times a day.”
From Jennifer Cargile
