In Part 1 and Part 2 we met:

I. The Pious Patriarch (Naboth)
II. The Pouting Potentate (Ahab)
III. The Poisonous Puppeteer (Jezebel)
IV. The Pestering Prophet (Elijah)

In Part 3 we saw:

V. The Preeminent Precept

Now we will discover:

VI. The Poignant Payment
and
VII. The Punctual Punishment

There came a time when Jehoshaphat the King of Judah was preparing to go to war with Syria, and he wanted the help of Ahab the King of Israel. Ahab agreed, on the condition that he would disguise himself, and that Jehoshaphat would wear the robes of a king, but Ahab would not. The King of Syria had a plan for his men to disregard the rest of the troops and go directly after the king. But a strange thing happened in the heat of battle.

And a certain man drew a bow at a venture…

I Kings 22:34

Dr. R.G. Lee, who preached a great sermon on this passage of Scripture, called this man “the nameless aimless archer.” He was a “certain” man – not named – who drew his bow at a venture – not really aiming at anything. (In keeping with my own outline, I probably should have called him the “Passive Pointer.”)

Are you “nameless?” God knows your name, even the hairs of your head are numbered. But does the devil know your name? He knew Job’s name. When God asked, “Hast thou you considered my servant Job?” (Job 1:8) the devil didn’t say, “No, who is that?” He knew Job by name, because Job was living an exemplary life for the Lord. The devil knew Paul’s name. The evil spirit summoned by the Jewish exorcists said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Acts 19:15). As Christians we should not be “nameless,” because we are certainly not “aimless.” We are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Your “calling” (your vocation) is to love God and love others – to serve God and to serve others. This archer did God’s will, but there is no indication he received God’s blessing for doing it. God will get the glory out of your life one way or the other. The question is not whether God will be glorified – the question is whether you will get the tremendous blessing of having a part in that glory.

And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country. So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake.

I Kings 22:34-38

This is the Poignant Penalty. Just as the dogs had licked the blood of Naboth, so they licked the blood of King Ahab. But what about Jezebel?

Ahab’s son became king, and Jezebel pulled his strings the way she had pulled Ahab’s. He also worshiped Baal, and was a wicked king… and years passed. Elisha replaced Elijah. Then, one day God told Elisha that Jehu, the chariot driver, was to be anointed king.

And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber;

II Kings 9:2 (emphasis added)

Jehu rode down on the palace in Jezreel, and, after killing Ahab’s wicked son, he looked up at Jezebel, the painted and poisonous puppeteer.

… and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:

II Kings 9:32-36

Why did God make the penalty for the sins of Ahab and Jezebel so poignant? We might say that God was pleased with the symmetry of it. Sometimes, as in the case of Absalom’s hair (II Samuel 14:26 and 18:9), God just decides to make the punishment fit the crime in a ghastly humorous way.

When Ahab was announcing God’s punishment to Ahab, he told him:

Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,

I Kings 21:21

Most Bible versions other than the King James Version speak of the punishment of all the “male” followers of Ahab, but that is not the correct translation. The King James Version gets this right and retains the true context. Ahab and Jezebel did not see Naboth’s vineyard as God’s property. They saw it as belonging to whomever was powerful enough or sneaky enough to get it. So they marked it as theirs – the way a dog marks his territory against a wall. The poignant penalty is when God takes our vain attempts to dishonor Him, and our foolish boasting that we can somehow spite Him and get away with it, and He turns them into our own shame and disgrace. Be very careful about what you try to mark as “your” territory in this life. If we are trying to keep some things from God, He may just decide to take those things away, so we will have more time, energy, focus, attention, and love for Him.

The Punctual Punishment

God’s judgment may seem late or slow to us, or it may seem terribly swift, but the fact is – it is always right on time. The devil arises. His agents arise, and pull the strings of the lost. (Lost people are the devil’s puppets. See Ephesians 2:2) God’s servants arise to proclaim His warnings and judgments. Finally, God ARISES.

Ahab got three years. Jezebel got many more. But the payment came due – and it was only a down payment. Jezebel is paying for all eternity. If you are not right with God, you have to ask yourself how close is God’s judgment from coming to you right now? It will not be tardy; it will not fail. One day every one who has ever lived is going to confess the truth about God: that He is worthy of honor and obedience. Would you rather God have you by the heart or by the throat? II Corinthians 6:2 says now is the accepted time. “Behold, now is the day of salvation.” Fling yourself on the mercy of Christ this instant.

Luke 4:24-30
“I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

As we continue to walk with the Lord through his word, we are once again confronted with the issue of a prophet not being accepted in his hometown. Three times over in as many books of the Bible, the same issue is echoed and there must be some relevance to it. Jesus reflects on the life and ministry of Elijah and talks about how God used him to minister to a widow in Sidon rather than to the many in Israel. He then talks about Elisha and the issue of many lepers not being healed in Israel but only a Syrian. What is the issue here? Why would the locals find it so difficult to accept one of their own and rather trust someone they don’t know? What is the Lord speaking to us today?

I was born in a Christian home and went to Church all my childhood days. Jesus Christ was preached, taught and accepted as God but I did not put my faith in him until my eyes were opened far away from home. I accepted Christ when I saw evidence of lives impacted by him in Bangalore and saw people who lived with motives not of this world but of Christ. Instead of looking critically at Christ through my skeptical eyes that grew weary of the agenda being pushed in my face, it was easier to see him with open eyes when I was away. This does not mean Christ was different at home and elsewhere but just that we tend to get critical of such things when we live with it in our homes. Similarly, for the locals of the land where Jesus was born and raised, they could not imagine trusting him as their Lord but it would be easier to put their faith in someone they did not know whom they experienced anew. Are you living in a dead relationship with Christ or not in one at all? Why don’t you explore him through new eyes by stepping out of your comfort zone and experience what a real SAVIOR means.

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

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Beautiful or Boring

The Prophet Adam

The Prophet Siith

The Prophet Idris (Enoch)

The Prophet Nuh (Noah)

The Prophet Hud

The Prophet Salih

The Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham)

The Prophet Isma’il (Ishmael)

The Prophet Ishaq (Isaac)

The Prophet Yaqub (Jacob)

The Prophet Lot (Lot)

The Prophet Shuaib

The Prophet Yusuf (Joseph)

The Prophet Ayoub (Job)

The Prophet Dhul-Kifl

The Prophet Yunus (Jonah)

The Prophet Musa (Moses) & Harun (Aaron)

The Prophet Hizqeel (Ezekiel)

The Prophet Elyas (Elisha)

The Prophet Shammil (Samuel)

The Prophet Dawud (David)

The Prophet Sulaiman (Soloman)

The Prophet Shia (Isaiah)

The Prophet Aramaya (Jeremiah)

The Prophet Daniel

The Prophet Uzair (Ezra)

The Prophet Zakariyah (Zechariah)

The Prophet Yahya (John)

The Prophet Isa (Jesus)

The Prophet Muhammad

Protected environment—The adobe ruins in Stagecoach Community Park are enclosed inside a protective structure

By Donald H. Harrison
jewishsightseeing.com, June 27, 2006

CARLSBAD, Calif.—Stagecoach Community Park today is a combination of ball fields, picnic areas,  a community activities building, and, under a protective structure, the mysterious-looking ruins of an old adobe building, identified by plaque as the Andres Ybarra ranch house. The plaque says it had been used as a station on the two-day San Diego to Los Angeles stagecoach run after 1864.

However, the plaque explaining the ghostly remains doesn’t say that by the time the building was used for a stagecoach stop, the 4,321-acre Ybarra rancho had been sold to the mercantile firm of J.S. Mannasse & Co, in which Joseph S. Mannasse and Marcus Schiller, two members of San Diego County’s pioneering Jewish community, were equal partners.

The merchants, who operated a general store, stables, and a lumber company in San Diego, had  purchased Rancho Las Encinitas from Ybarra for $3,000, mostly because it provided good pasture land on which to raise cattle.

Mannasse and Schiller hoped that the land would prove valuable not only for grazing.  On New Year’s Day, 1864, they and six visitors to the ranch located a mine that they hoped would prove to be rich in silver and copper ore, although there is no evidence their dreams came true.  The two partners, Louis Rose, E.W. Morse, Joshua Sloan, A. Adams, A.W. Luckett and I. Rent each filed claims for 200 feet of their find, along with another 200 feet “by right of discovery.” The claim was located about 300 feet north of the Encinitas Silver and Copper Lode.  The New Year’s celebrants named their mine the Saint David Silver & Copper Lode.

When Alfred Seeley, a friend and neighbor in San Diego, decided to start up his own stagecoach line, the adobe house and nearby barn seemed a good place for horses to be changed and for passengers to be refreshed en route to Los Angeles..

The prominence of Jewish merchants in San Diego’s early history is illustrated by the fact that initially the stage left Old Town San Diego from the Franklin House, a hotel named after Jewish merchants, Lewis Franklin and his brother, Maurice.  They had added a story to the old two-story Express Hotel to turn the building into San Diego’s “skyscraper”—Old Town’s only three-story structure.

The Franklins had lived in San Diego, and battled each other, during the 1850s.  The two English-born brothers originally had hoped to divide profits from a hotel, saloon, and general store in the building, but Lewis could not get along with his younger brother’s wife, Victoria.  Their quarreling got so bad that Victoria refused to come down to the dining room for meals—unless Franklin was absent.   Finally the brothers split their assets in a messy court case that served as entertainment for the town folk of San Diego, whose interest in litigation was assured by the near absence of any other public amusements in San Diego.

Today in the archives of the San Diego Historical Society in Balboa Park, some of the stories of San Diego’s stagecoach era have been collected.  Material on file there tell us that in 1868, from the Franklin House, Seeley’s “United States Mail stage” left at 5 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The Concord stage, pulled by four horses,  made stops at San Diegita (San Dieguito), Encinitas, San Luis Rey, Las Flores, San Juan Capistrano, Anaheim, and Los Nietos (West Whittier)  before arriving the following day at 7 p.m. in Los Angeles. Passengers stayed over the first night in San Juan Capistrano.

Place names have changed over the years. The adobe ruins today are located in the eastern portion of the City of Carlsbad, and not in the nearby City of Encinitas, which names itself after the rancho.  As the rancho of the “little live oaks” stretched over an entire square league, some of its former grazing lands are now within the limits of the City of Encinitas. In between the time they were owned by J.S. Mannasse & Co. and the time they became part of modern Encinitas, they were possessed by a succession of owners, including a German-speaking, olive-growing colony known as Olivenhain.  That settlement’s old meeting house still is standing today.

In December 1869, Seeley switched his stage coach terminus in San Diego from the Franklin House to the old Casa de Bandini.  He renamed this building the Cosmopolitan Hotel, adding a second story to the old casa..  The Casa de Bandini had a fabled history.  It had been the home of Juan Bandini, a Peruvian immigrant to Mexican San Diego who, unlike many of the other townspeople in San Diego, supported the Americans in the Mexican-American War of 1846.

Commodore Robert Stockton made the Casa de Bandini his headquarters immediately after American forces occupied San Diego, and the story is told that  from household textiles Bandini’s daughters sewed the first American flag to fly over the nearby plaza, which was renamed as Washington Square. When American forces were outflanked and outfought by Californios in the Battle of San Pascual, the scout Kit Carson made his way from the battle zone near today’s Wild Animal Park to the Casa de Bandini to tell the news to Stockton.  The commodore ordered his forces to come to the rescue of the besieged American forces.

A cultured man, Bandini enjoyed hosting fandangos for the American officers and the local gentry, and is said to have introduced the waltz to California.  Active in the small town’s affairs, he served as an alcalde, or mayor, of early San Diego.

The Bandinis  maintained a store in their adobe, but in the mid 1850s they rented it to Jewish businessman Jacob Elias of Los Angeles, who, in turn, sold the business to his employee, Heyman Mannasse—the brother of Joseph.  Like the Franklin brothers, the Mannasse brothers had difficulty getting along, and like the Franklins, some of their troubles had to do with a woman.

In what was considered the premiere Jewish social event of 1863, Hannah Schiller and Heyman Mannasse were married in a ceremony officiated by San Diego’s earliest Jewish settler, Louis Rose, then a 13-year resident of the outpost town. As Joseph Mannasse and Marcus Schiller were business partners, the marriage should have further strengthened the two families’ bonds.  But Heyman took off on a cattle drive, and wasn’t in any hurry to return.  Hannah, humiliated,  found herself increasingly dependent on her brother, who eventually paid Heyman some money to expedite the divorce.

In 1866, Hannah was remarried—to Joseph. The brothers had become estranged.  In fact, after Heyman was murdered in his store in Wickenburg, Arizona Territory, in 1875,  it was a cousin, Moses Mannasse, who helped settle his estate—not Joseph.

So, it was irony rather than family affinity that led to Joseph Mannasse’s Encinitas rancho becoming a stagecoach stop on the run that began from the very building where his brother once had his San Diego store.

Stagecoach drivers were known as “jehus,” proving that Bible-reading was another popular past-time in early San Diego.  In 2 Kings 9, the prophet Elisha anoints Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, as king of Israel, dispatching him to make war against Queen Jezebel and her son Jehoram.  Watchmen for Jehoram recognized Jehu by his wild driving.  As translated in the Stone edition of the Tanakh, 2 Kings 9:20 reads: “…the driving is like the driving of Jehu, (grand)son of Nimshi, for he is driving (his chariot) recklessly.”  The King James Bible, with which 19th Century San Diegans were far
more familiar, rendered the passage: “… the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously.”

However careful such drivers for Seeley’s stage as Frank Shaw and Don Luis Serrano were, the journey could at times be heart-stopping.  A brochure produced by the Seeley Stables, adjacent to the Cosmopolitan Hotel in today’s Old Town San Diego State Park, quotes Dame Shirley’s description of a ride on a similar line: “For more than a mile we drove along the edge of a precipice, and so near that it seemed to me, should the horse deviate a hair’s breadth from their usual track, we must be dashed to eternity.”

More flavor of the period can be adduced from the “Rules of the Road” laid down for its stagecoach passengers by Wells Fargo.

1) Abstinence from liquor is requested but if you must drink, share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly.

2) If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forgo smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the Gentle Sex.  Chewing tobacco is permitted but spit with the wind, not against it.

3) Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children.

4) Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort during rough weather.  Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver.

5) Don’t snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger’s shoulder for a pillow.  He (or she) may not understand and friction may result.

6) Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses.

7) In the event of runaway horses, remain calm.  Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes.

Forbidden topics of discussion are stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings.

9) Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It’s a long walk back.  A word to the wise should be sufficient.

Although the station was named Mannasse Station, Mannasse lived in San Diego, where in 1867 he was one of three city trustees who authorized auctioning the land which Alonzo Horton developed into modern day downtown San Diego. Mannasse hired Mr. and Mrs. Wilson to run the ranch house where the passengers ate.  He also employed a youngster named Fenwick to attend to the horses.

Alas, Fenwick fell in love with Wilson’s wife, leading him to surprise Wilson on Oct. 20, 1871, at the J.S. Mannasse lumberyard in San Diego. In the words of witness James Cassidy, as transcribed by a San Diego Union reporter who covered the trial, “Fenwick stepped up and said, ‘I’ve got you!’ and fired at the same time.  Wilson put his hands across his breast and jumped off the pile.  Fenwick ran after him shouting. Wilson then fell.  Fenwick then pulled out a derringer and shot him in the head… Wilson was lying on his face when the derringer was fired. He fired, I think, five times, don’t know how many times he hit him.”

After the shooting, Fenwick announced that he would give himself up, adding that Wilson had often threatened his life.  This argument did not impress the jury, however; Fenwick was found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged—earning the dubious distinction of being the first person to be so condemned in Horton’s New Town.  When he left the courtroom, according to the reporter, “Fenwick assumed an air of bravado and putting his hat on his head marched out with a swaggering gait, bowing and smiling to his acquaintances as he passed out.”   Before he could be executed, however, Fenton committed suicide “by a narcotic poison, believed to be morphine, administered by his own hand and procured in some manner unknown to the jury.”

As Horton’s New Town became more significant, it became the origin and destination for the stagecoach, with Old Town, lying farther to the north, becoming an intermediate stop. Ways were sought to shorten the time between San Diego and Los Angeles.  When, according to a story in the San Diego Union, “Oliver H. Border of the Batequitos took seriously his duties as county supervisor…he went out and personally grubbed a road through Green Valley, eliminating the tortuous eastern loop to the Encinitos and cutting off several miles.”
.

Abraham serving the 3 strangers

Today I shall provide the summary of the Haftarah portions that linked to both Parashah Vayera and Chayei Sarah readings from the FFOZ Torah Club Volume 3 study material. The Haftarah’s connection to Parashah Vayera draws primarily upon the prophetic promise of a son made to a barren woman and its subsequent fulfillment. In the Torah portion, the Angel of the LORD promised that Sarah would bear a son, saying, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son…. At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son” (Genesis 18:10, 14). In the Haftarah portion, Elisha virtually quotes this text when he tells the Shunammite woman, “At this season next year you will embrace a son” (2 Kings 4:16).

The Haftarah texts also listed many miraculous doings of Elisha, the beloved disciple of Elijah and one of them is being taught by our beloved Master to privately seek out our loving Father who is unseen. Yeshua sought out secluded places where He could spend time in prayer. He said, “When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). In the Haftarah, we read this passage, “So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured” (2 Kings 4:5). The same is found in this passage, “Come, my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you” (Isaiah 26:20). Hence, we can see that if we seek the Father in heaven secretly and closed the door behind us, our prayer is 100% answered.

Let us continue with the Prophet Elisha and the Shunammite woman events as stated in the Haftarah reading for this particular Parashah study and there are too many of them for me to share it here in my blog but one of them is truly applicable in our daily life that we need to practice it in the Name of Messiah Yeshua. Our Master teaches that one who provides for a prophet or a righteous man (tzaddik) without any ulterior motive in doing so will receive a reward. Conversely, one who offers provision to the servant of God for the sake of some reward will not receive a reward. Yeshua also says that when we provide for His disciples, it will be reckoned unto us as if we had provided hospitality for Him, and one who provides hospitality for Him is regarded as one who has provided hospitality for God. He says, “Whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Matthew 10:42). So brothers and sisters in Messiah, provide hospitality to one another especially to your pastor or rabbi.

Alright, now lets move on to the next Parashah study – Chayei Sarah. Remember we are always doing the Haftarah portion of each week’s Parashah study. The Haftarah’s connection to Parashah Chayei Sarah study corresponds specifically to Genesis 24 as it begins with the words, “Now Abraham was old, advanced in age.” This passage is strongly related to the Haftarah text because it too begins with the same description of King David: “Now King David was old, advanced in age.” Genesis 24 ends with Abraham assuring that Isaac is his sole successor by bequeathing all of his possessions to him and sending his other sons away with gifts. A similar concern regarding succession rights provides the same story for the Haftarah portion as well. To be frank, I personally enjoy better in the Haftarah Vayera study than this one because this study is not so much on the Prophets but it deals more particularly on David’s offspring and his later life. Albeit it may not be an interesting study for most but it still have its learning point especially for those who are concerned over bringing up righteous children for God’s glorious hope. In 1 Kings 1:6 the verse said, “His father had never crossed him at any time by asking, ‘Why have you done so?”‘ And the verse means David had failed to discipline his sons. David’s lenience is evident in the Amnon story and in the Absalom story. David had spoiled Adonijah, and the man was used to getting what he wanted. When parents do not discipline their children, the children grow up disrespecting their parents. Adonijah disrespected David by declaring himself king against his father’s wishes and before his father’s death.

Again, the Haftarah Chayei Sarah study is filled with tons of prophetic implications that we can look forward to a Messianic Era (World-To-Come) through our Messianic King Saviour from our FFOZ Torah Club Volume 3 study material that I do not have the time to blog everything here. But what I have written here is certainly sufficient for a momentary pondering upon the Scripture to live a righteous life for HaShem/Elohim and for His glory.

Shalom for now and until the next Parashah study….

Elisha had to deal with a dead child (2 Kings 4:29-37). It is true that, in his instance, it was natural death; but the death with which you have to come in contact is not the less real death because it is spiritual. Boys and girls are as surely as grown-up people, “dead in trespasses and sins.” May none fail fully to realize the state in which all human beings are naturally found. Unless you have a very clear sense of the utter ruin and spiritual death of children, you will be incapable of being made a blessing to them. Go to them, I pray you, not as to sleepers whom you can by your own power awaken from their slumber, but as to spiritual corpses who can only be quickened by a power divine. Elisha aimed at nothing less than the restoration of the child to life. May you never be content with aiming at secondary benefits, or even with realizing them; may you strive for the grandest of all ends, the salvation of immortal souls. Your business is not merely to teach children to read the Bible, not barely to inculcate the duties of morality, nor even to instruct them in the mere letter of the gospel, but your high calling is to be the means, in the hands of God, of bringing life from heaven to dead souls.

Resurrection, then, is our aim! To raise the dead is our mission! How is so strange a work to be achieved? If we yield to unbelief we shall be staggered by the evident fact that the work to which the Lord has called us is quite beyond our own personal power. We cannot raise the dead. We are, however, no more powerless than Elisha, for he of himself could not restore the Shunammite’s son. Need this fact discourage us? Does it not rather direct us to our true power by shutting us out from our own fancied might? I trust we are all of us already aware that the man who lives in the region of faith dwells in the realm of miracles…

You are sent into the world not to do the things which are possible to man, but those impossibilities which God worketh by His Spirit, by the means of His believing people. You are to work miracles, to do marvels. You are not, therefore, to look upon the restoration of these dead children, which in God’s name you are called to bring about, as being a thing unlikely or difficult when you remember who it is that works by your feeble instrumentality.

-Charles Spurgeon: read the rest at The Spurgeon Archive

Shadows of Messiah: Elisha

• His name proclaims God’s salvation.
• He had an itinerant ministry.
• He had disciples, one of whom was duplicitous. (2 Kings 5:20-27; Matthew 26:20-25)
• He receives the Spirit at the Jordan River. (2 Kings 2:7–15; John 1:28)
• He performed miracles, such as healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. (2 Kings 5:1-16; 4:1-7, 34)
• His ministry crossed cultural and ethnic barriers. (2 Kings 5:1-16; John 4)
• He defied the physics of water and gravity. (2 Kings 6:1-7; Mark 6:45-56)
• He presented a challenge to the political establishment. (2 Kings 9:1-10)
• His death gives life. (2 Kings 13:20-21)

Elisha prays and his allies see God’s spiritual troops.

He prays again and enemy troops are blinded.

ELISHA

Elisha’s servant was fearful as he saw the Syrian army compassing the city. But Elisha had prayed. He knew what unseen presence was about them. He asked the Lord to open his servant’s eyes to see what he saw. “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Elisha knew he could pray, and the ministering spirits would respond. “And the Lord opened his servant’s eyes to behold that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

In these times of economic and social hardships and, literally, disasters, it is difficult to remember just who is in charge – for real!

The present country and world situation has hit my own family, friends and clients. Loss of jobs, struggles to make ends meet or even come close to meeting render looks of despair and heavy hearts in those for whom I care.

Almost 20 years ago my own family was hit and hit h.a.r.d. with economic downfall, the loss of my husband’s ‘family homestead’ in which we were living, total bankruptcy and a relocation to a place that was totally foreign to myself and my family. Our children were uprooted and torn from their life-long home and everything that was secure and safe for them.

Going through these times was like going through a dark tunnel with no end. But, at the end of the tunnel was always ‘the light’ – that light of God’s face shining down and saying, “It’ll be OK, Gwen. It’ll be OK. Keep your eyes on my face, on my light and although I cannot reveal to you what I have planned just keep faith that it is far more satisfying, far more fulfilling than anything you could even imagine right now. Just keep looking at my face. Don’t look anywhere else. Don’t look down or right or left … only UP. And know that I have an army of angels around you to protect you and your family.”

It’s ironic that today I received a quick email from a family member who is walking on slippery stones right now. Her career is in jeopardy due to the economic times and life, for her, is beginning to look a bit troublesome. I turned to the bible and the above scripture is what I found … about Elisha and God’s ministering angels on horseback. How apropos … !! Of all the scriptures that can minister and comfort I turned to one that told of angels on horseback!

We serve an AWESOME GOD! He KNOWS our heartaches. He KNOWS our fears, our worries our discontentments — but He says, LOOK UP! Look up and keep your eyes on HIS FACE! For soon He will reveal something for you that is far more beautiful, satisfying and fulfilling than you can ever imagine … just keep your eyes on Him and know that HE keeps an army of angels around those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

While it may seem that your life is in jeopardy and possibly even ending – it really is just beginning. In all His fullness, in all His glory and His grace … protected and entwined in His love and mercy.

Your life is just beginning today … keep your eyes steadfast on His face and His power and you’ll see things that you’ve only dreamed about.

God loves you.

In His Blessings,
– Gwen

The word Hebrew means “from the other side of the river”. The phrase is hypothetical and gives a clear picture of both sides of the symbolical river Jordan. The river is purely spiritual and the two sides of the river shows the difference between the time before and after the catastrophe that destroyed the Motherland some twelve thousand years ago.

See the whole world as one side of the river as a paradise world with lasting peace and plenty of everything to absolutely all human beings. The symbolism from the Bible is a land filled with milk and honey. People lived with education as they main activity and their technology was more advanced than you can Imagine. The whole world population lived together like brothers and friends.

This is the peaceful world that were destroyed in a natural catastrophe. It is the world that are described in the Bible as the Promised Land. All you need to rebuild a world with lasting peace is the history about the lost Motherland.

After the large catastrophe the whole world changed and the chaos of wars and conflicts started and never stopped. You and the whole world population truly are on “the other side of the river”, aimlessly walking in a symbolic desert. The desert is your state of mind, totally obedient to your nation and you are all working as a slaves, soldiers and servants, still.

The river Jordan symbolizes an abundance of knowledge, and all you have to do is decide that you want to cross the river and learn about the Diagram Star and the full history about the lost Motherland. You have cross the river alone. It is like going to school. It is your world of thoughts that have to be enlightened

A strange way to cross the river

2 Kings 2, 13-15

Elisha stood looking up to heaven. It was a strange sight! Glowing horses galloped across the sky. They pulled a chariot that was so glorious that it seemed like on fire. Elijah was driving a chariot of fire. The wind whistled and hit Elisha. He used his hand to shade for his eyes. The light was enormously strong and the sand whirled around him.

Suddenly it was completely silent. Elisha lowered his hand and looked up. Elijah was gone. There was nothing to see on the sky any more. There was no wind. Elisha looked around. He was all alone.

He bent and took the mantle Elijah had left behind. Then he turned towards the river Jordan and hit the water with the mantle.

“Where is the Lord, Elijah’s God”, he shouted. In the same moment he hit the water with the mantle, two walls of water raised and Elisha walked across the river on dry ground. When he got to the other side, the walls of water fell together with a splash. His wish had come true. God had given him the same strong spirit of a prophet that Elijah had. The prophet Elisha was ready to go were God called him.

It means that people on the other side of the river knew the history of the lost Motherland, and knew that the God of their religion is the late superior Motherland council. Then on the desert side of the river Jordan, the Hebrew people made their choice and did put the Diagram Star in a golden chest and called it the Ark of the Covenant.

The other side of the river is now a symbolic mental desert and the people living there no longer know the story about the lost Motherland. The whole world population made the Ark of the Covenant and never stopped dancing around the Golden Calf together.

Try to understand that you and the whole world population are living in a mental desert, in the darkness of oblivion, like blinded and living dead. Your mental desert is covered with the gold and glitter and the dogmas and assumptions derived from the three factors of the Original Sin.

Many humans live their life using all their energy striving for riches and personal power. The many millions of poor people use all their energy to make money enough to feed them self and their family. I am asking all of you to stop whatever you are doing and have a look at what awaits you on the other side of the river Jordan, in the Promised Land. It is a specific journey that you have to make within your own world of thoughts.

You should know by now that both sides of the river are on the other side. You and the whole world population can build the new world right where you live. The mental desert is lack of knowledge that have been denied mankind for several thousand years.

The building of a new world with lasting peace can only be built with a complete set of new thoughts and with the use of only peaceful means. The new thoughts are the forgotten knowledge about the lost Motherland and the Diagram Star.

You and the whole world population are still living in the desert, in the darkness of oblivion, on the other side of the river Jordan. In order to find the knowledge you and the whole world population have to symbolical walk through the river of knowledge. You will find the land with milk and honey, meaning finding a life with a true meaning; a life in a paradise where all humans have all they need to live a good life.

So come across, out of the mental desert and see with your own eyes the paradise world that your ancestors choose not to enter several thousand years ago.

Fire, water, earth and air are symbolizing knowledge about lost world history and the light strong as the sunlight comes from the sun, the moon and the twelve star signs of the Zodiac, the cosmic model for the Diagram Star.

The symbolism in this story is the same as before, and it is the Masters method of telling the people living in present time that the knowledge about the lost Motherland is carried by the Diagram Star and has been taken in and are preserved in the spirit word, in the common world of thoughts.

The essence of all this is that the work in the real world has to be done by living human beings. The help all humans gets from the Spirit World is only spiritual. Humans cannot make dry pats across a river, but they can obtain the knowledge that can open the eyes of all human beings, including yours.

The crossing of the river Jordan was also symbolically done in the camouflaged story about Josva and all the Israelites. You should know by now that all the religions in the world are like a gigantic wall of thoughts based on imposed religious belief. The Israelites broke down the walls of Jericho with the use of the knowledge hidden in the Ark of the Covenant.

The walls of Jericho are a symbol for all the three factors of the Original Sin. The story shows that knowledge truly can win over all religious belief.

The crossing of the Red Sea is also a symbol for the ocean of knowledge that the whole world population will need to learn before they can start building a new world with lasting peace. The story tells that one’s upon a time the whole world population knew the history about the lost Motherland.

The prophet Elisha is crossing the river Jordan alone, and his mission in life is to preserve and pass on the knowledge he received from Elijah. Mentally he walks in to the land of milk and honey, because he knows the full history about the lost Motherland and he knows what’s in the Ark of the Covenant.

Look at the world you live in. The whole world population is still blind and living their lives as living dead, while watching the world being destroyed around them. It is a fact that the government system with many national states, a global system of capitalism and all the religions in the world, are destroying the planet we all live on.

Planet Earth is inside one of many long term cycles, and it is difficult to tell exact what is caused by destructive human activity and what is caused by Mother Nature itself. It really doesn’t matter a lot; because the destructive human activities have to stop anyway if our children and their descendants shall have a planet earth to live on.

The destructive human activity is caused by the three factors of the Original Sin, and it is only the knowledge uncovered from the Bible and the Diagram Star that can help mankind to build a new world order with lasting peace. It is a well founded fact that you all still are working slaves, soldiers and servants under the rule of a government system that first was enforced by the Pharaoh in old Egypt. Only knowledge about the lost Motherland can set you all free.

FHM 100 sexiest women in the world 2009

01 – Cheryl Cole

02 – Megan Fox

03 – Jessica Alba

04 – Britney Spears

05 – Keeley Hazell

06 – Adriana Lima

07 – Elisha Cuthbert

08 – Kristin Kreuk

09 – Anna Friel

10 – Freida Pinto

Mais em: FHM

Carradine, Beverly

Elijah has to go, but God is getting Elisha ready to take his place.  George Fox is called away, but John Wesley takes up the same cry which died away on the Quaker’s whitening lips.  The Methodist Church began to lose power, and the Salvation Army sprang to the front… – Heart Talks (Cincinnati: God’s Bible School and College, n.d.), 140.

C – Carradine, Beverly

Elijah has to go, but God is getting Elisha ready to take his place.  George Fox is called away, but John Wesley takes up the same cry which died away on the Quaker’s whitening lips.  The Methodist Church began to lose power, and the Salvation Army sprang to the front… – Heart Talks (Cincinnati: God’s Bible School and College, n.d.), 140.

WIDOW IN DISTRESS

Instant Entreprenuer – Just add oil! (written by ReAnn Ring)

(King James Version – www.BlueLetterBible.com)

2Ki 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen

2Ki 4:2 And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

2Ki 4:3 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, [even] empty vessels; borrow not a few.

2Ki 4:4 And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

2Ki 4:5 So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought [the vessels] to her; and she poured out.

2Ki 4:6 And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, [There is] not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

2Ki 4:7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, HOW – Who is this passage about and who is involved, what is this about and what happened, where is this taking place and where do the details take place, when is this happening in the character’s lives and when is the history of that nation did this happen, why is this happening does it appear, and how is this played out – solved – delivered – etc.?

Who____________________________________________________________________

What___________________________________________________________________

Where__________________________________________________________________

When___________________________________________________________________

Why____________________________________________________________________

How____________________________________________________________________

1. What state of mind was the woman in when she came to Elisha?

Look up the word cried in the Strong’s Concordance and describe more fully the type of “cry” she made to Elisha in verse 1? Have you ever been in this situation of desperation?

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2. What do you think of Elisha’s reaction? What first step did he tell her to do? What was the second step he instructed her to do?

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3. What was the issue at hand?

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4. What do you think led up to this crises?

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5. Do you think she had tried anything before this to remedy her debt? Think of what she told Elisha she had when he asked her what she had . . . she answered “nothing, save a pot of oil.”

Think of the story of Jonah, a dear teacher of mine pointed out to me that he didn’t cry out to the Lord until AFTER he had spent three days in the darkness of the whale’s stomach. Why did he, and why do we, wait so long to cry out to the Lord for help?

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6. What is the oil in your life that can be used of God – no matter how meaningless it may seen to you?

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7. Vessels in this passage can stand for people, or commodities that can be of value- we are vessels of honor as people. What are the vessels or who are the vessels in your life?

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8. Who are your neighbors in your circumstances? What is it that God can use in your life to bless you and others? How can you pour for more into others?

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9. Explain what you think it means when the passage mentions that she closed the door on herself and her sons when she began to pour and the miracle took place – who was present with her besides her two sons. Hint: WHO does the oil stand for?

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10. How does this apply to your life or to someone you know?

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11. Are you willing to give everything you have to the Lord to use, or do you feel you having nothing to offer him? How far are you willing to sell out to get answers to your needs, before you go to the Father for answers and for replenishment?

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10. Do you BELIEVE that the Lord can do the same miracle for you as He did in this passage for this woman?

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11. Once the woman finished pouring the oil, what did she do then?

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12. Did she know before hand when she performed part one of the instructions from Elisha what he was going to tell her to do with all of that oil she collected? Did she even know ahead of time that the Lord was going to perform a miracle?

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13. Why would it have been a disaster if she had simply given up and not followed through with Elisha’s wise counsel for the reason of that fact she didn’t see how this would work or remedy her problem?

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14. When you are in a despair, run out of resources, are destitute, and on your last few drops of oil, do you think it is simply enough that someone hands you replenishment, or is it more valuable to learn how to exercise faith and a strategy that can supply you for a lifetime.

“Feed a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”.

Does it make sense that this woman had NO experience as an entrepreneur oil merchant, yet the Lord made her into a success story over night? It certainly doesn’t mean she didn’t have to work, exercise faith, and OBEY, but none the less, she was set for future means forever, and she could now help others with the same story of her life.

Can you imagine what she told her neighbors once she sold the oil and then returned the borrowed vessels back to them?

How can this incredible miracle apply to you? Pray for the Lord to show you .

What vessels do you have in your life that may be filled with impurities or foul waters and need to be emptied in order for the Lord to fill them with fresh oil?

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My prayer for you: Lord Jesus, You are that modern day Elisha that can show us what our resources, talents, and skills are regardless if wether or not we believe we have anything to offer. Will you lift the veil of our eyes to see you more clearly as we turn our faces to you according to II Corinthians 3: 16 and guide us into where we should use our abilities for Your glory.

Show the person reading this right now, that NOTHING is too insignificant for you to use, but more importantly, that we do offer to you exactly what we have without assumptions, and not sit on a miracle waiting to happen right in front of us.

Amen

Went bowling with the student council today, it was ever so much fun, even though not so many of us went, still, great time!
I played a very good game, with plenty of strikes and cool moves.
I named myself Jet Li on the scoreboard, after my hero Jet Li! ( duh)

Woah, can you believe that I actually scored this move!

On my ay home from school I noticed a very, VERY cute girl sitting opposite me.
Pretty young, maybe 19-20 or so…we went off at the same stop.
She was walking right behind me, could she live close to me?
Sure thing, she lives in the building next to mine :O
How come Ive never seen her before???

It is just like a movie where there’s a hot girl next door…Kinda like the movie Girl next door

Elisha Cuthbert is by Buddha, so extremely hot in this movie…
-Why cant she always look like that??

Stunner there, miss Cuthbert
TI HI!

I think I am getting ill…
I slept pretty bad, my whole body was aching and my back was itching
Headache, soar throat, nausea, extreme water thirst, slight fever and moaning… I might be coming down with something, but the flu..I think not.
Maybe I should stay home from school tomorrow though..

I have to admit, the job hunt’s got me down. Really, an emoticon has never felt so apropos…

It doesn’t help me feel any better that officials are declaring the recession over. You mean to tell me the economy is allegedly improving and I still don’t have a job?

And then there’s the fact that media, broadcasting, and journalism are among the most competitive industries, but journalism is among the industries losing jobs at the fastest rate.

Maybe I should consider being a parking lot attendant.

But I don’t really need any studies, data, or articles to tell me what I already know: my experience, skills, and talent don’t really matter much when there’s always someone more experienced, more skilled, and more talented applying for the same position as me– even for entry-level jobs.

The last couple of weeks have been particularly rough. First, I emailed a radio station I’ve been interested in working at for quite some time. Much like other TV stations and radio stations I’ve been emailing, I didn’t get any response at all. But I was really convinced this radio station was for me, so a few weeks later, I emailed a second time to reiterate my interest, this time pointing out their post I’d found on broadcasting job board. Again, no response… unless you count them removing said posting from said job board. It was like a silent but powerful “we don’t want to hire you and we think you suck.”

And then there are the times I do get a response, but it’s not the one I want. I got my very first rejection letter earlier this week. Worse still, this was for a position slightly outside the broadcasting industry that I thought I was a shoe-in for. Not so, according to the form email I received stating “While your qualifications are good, we have selected those individuals whose background and work experience appear to best meet [our] needs”. Doesn’t exactly make me feel any better knowing that the same letter went out to possibly hundreds of other applicants in the pool of “the large number of highly talented applicants we received.”

But all of that pales in comparison to an incident I went through last week. It was not only one of the strangest things that’s happened to me during this job hunt, but just plain one of the most bizarre things that’s happened to me ever– and what inspired me to write this post.

It all started when I checked my cell phone and saw I had a missed call from an area code where I’d sent an email to the day before. Excited I was finally getting a hit on my resume, I checked my voicemail… only to hear a long, drawn out conversation about… ME. The potential employer had for some reason dialed my number on speaker phone, not realized my voicemail started recording, and proceeded to talk about me. I was treated to such gems as “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” and “She’s got a link to YouTube?” “Yeah,” “Well that’s not gonna tell us anything.” News to me considering this was a news production gig, and my YouTube page features videos I’ve produced, shot, written, reported, and edited.

Family members suggested I call the offenders back, but I decided I didn’t really want to work for such unprofessional people anyway.

Of course I know I’m not the only person experiencing difficulty in finding a job right now, but I am probably one of the few who’s been treated to a humbling front-row seat to all of my shortcomings… a distinction I’m not too sure I want considering my self esteem’s already taking regular hits from my floundering job hunt.

Elisha Cuthbert (30.11.1982)

Sorry for the green tags. This song, out of Psalm 24:1-2, really moved me. There’s something on that chord progression.

I wanted to say something about the quality of music that comes out of the prayer room – as a musician of many instruments, there’s something in me that gets very, very easily distracted when something’s off in music. Sorry if that seems like it’s shallow, but the psalmist does often exhort the musician to play skillfully unto the Lord! Just as it can be a distraction when someone can not speak clearly while teaching a message, it can be a distraction to me when something is not being clearly communicated musically during a worship music set, i.e., instruments out of tune, singers off key, musicians not playing together, etc.

But on the other end of the spectrum, when there are moments when everyone gets in their pocket while playing, things can flow out of that place! It has power on it.

When Saul was afflicted by a tormenting spirit, David was called in to simply play his harp with skill – the musician who loves the Lord, playing skillfully the songs that flow from a heart connected with the Lord, was able to ease the affliction upon Saul!

Even Elisha, when he was about to prophesy, called “bring me a minstrel!” and it came about that when the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord was upon him…(2 Kings 3)

There are so many people out there that are calling upon the wrong source for musical inspiration. There are many musicians out there who have admittedly gained inspiration from demons or demonic experiences, and countless more who have claimed inspiration from those who had the demonic experiences.

But the prayer room births music that claims inspiration in the Holy Spirit… amen.