The Pattern of Failure: Idols in the Temple
The world is imagic. That is, the entire world--its beings, cultures, societies and histories--presents the image of God. Because it IS the Image of God; it is the Manifestation--appearing or form--of God. "This," speaking of the whole world, "is his picture, his being." Not necessarily good, though, is it? That is because we also are included in God, at least a part of God in this stage, so that the world is showing us, too. Our part of the picture is not pretty, except that it shows how God is becoming.
Yes, God does not change from being God, but he develops. Grows. Matures. I mean, hey, look at us. We are God dumbed-down in order to develop past our limitations as God. Our ignorance has been isolated and almost purified in birth into humanhood--dumbed to the max. That is consequential to this amnesia. We have to overcome it to become what was missing in us as God. That is our accepted assignment. (My definition of God here, by the way, is the Consciousness/Intelligence/Imagination/Spirit of the Ineffable Most High No-thing. God is the Image of the Ineffable as we are the image of God--all of us co-existent without division. THAT is your Trinity.)
In recent weeks and months I have been dealing with, or rather I should say God has been dealing with me, about the Season of Grace, basically the 490-year period between the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple. The period seems significant to me--a great portion of the Bible is dedicated to it--and I was surprised to find that the Jews have no name for it. I deduced The Season of Grace from Victor Alexander's translations from the ancient Aramaic and his comments therein.
What I have gotten from God is that this was (and is) a God-planned and executed image of ourselves in this life . . . HIGHLIGHTED. This was God banging a gong to get our attention; it's a specially constructed illustration. The prophets screeched it: "Seventy sevens shall rest upon your nation and upon the town of your reverence, so as the obligations may be concluded and the sins may be curtailed, so that the abominations shall be abandoned, and that they may usher in the eternal righteousness, such as the vision and the prophesies (sic) may be fulfilled, and to the Anointed One we may commit our blessings" (Daniel 9:24 Alexander). You can hardly see it through all the flags.
I thought God was interested in the difference between the translation above and its fulfillment and the Hebrew/Jewish version. But no, there is a PATTERN here. He is slapping me upside along the head with a two-by-four screaming, "Look. at. the. pattern." Okay, okay.
Oh. The pattern. In the Season of Grace. There is a pattern: rebellion against God leads to the destruction of the first Temple. This leads to captivity, threat and hardship, a common life for awhile, a return and rebuilding the Temple to better than before, the coming of Christ and . . . oh, yeah, the rebellion.
Two heads existed at the end of the Season of Grace: there were the people who had been prepared by the teachers of righteousness for the Messiah--who became the manifestation of the Messiah--and there were those who rejected them. I do not even suppose a single individual who was rejected, but a whole class of people who were persecuted--the "Christians" (as those Jews came to be called at Antioch). They were the Manifestation of the Man who is "Jesus Christ." I have got that, Christianity, and I have got the rebellion. God is saying, "Wake up and be aware of the opportunity that is before you . . . and which can be lost if you don't shape up and fly right."
Failure is at hand in spite of all the progress I have made. The Jews produced the early prophets, but they had also produced idolaters in the first Temple. Given the season of Grace, here they were at the end again with prophets . . . and rebels in the second temple. Adam had his corruption in Cain, but when through the Antediluvian Patriarchs he attained the rest that is Noah, he floated above the corruption unto the new world. That was good, but then he got drunk and Kham went all evily. Moses was doing pretty good with revelations and all, until he struck the rock in anger. Israel crossed the Jordan and Jericho fell, but Achan wanted other riches, and it led to slaughter. I have the feeling that I could go on for a month and not exhaust all the illustrations contrasting God's proffered success and ultimate failure. But it is never final. We pop up here again. Have another go, Dan. You want not to fail? Get the idols out of the Temple and finish with a single mind.
For about as long as God has been dealing with me about the Season of Grace, I have been reflecting on what might have been if I had not been a complete idiot when I was young. A bunch of what-ifs: "I COULD HAVE . . ." but didn't. That is looking back. Looking forward, "I CAN . . . I CAN get the idols out of my consciousness, and I CAN keep the Torah (i.e., its meaning, mystically understood). I CAN have the anointing."
We are all given the measure of self-control for righteousness and holiness (Acts 24:25), but if we pass on that and desire instead any other things we forfeit the opportunity. It's got to be a singular desire. Think right. Got to try to not be a complete idiot again.
Yes, God does not change from being God, but he develops. Grows. Matures. I mean, hey, look at us. We are God dumbed-down in order to develop past our limitations as God. Our ignorance has been isolated and almost purified in birth into humanhood--dumbed to the max. That is consequential to this amnesia. We have to overcome it to become what was missing in us as God. That is our accepted assignment. (My definition of God here, by the way, is the Consciousness/Intelligence/Imagination/Spirit of the Ineffable Most High No-thing. God is the Image of the Ineffable as we are the image of God--all of us co-existent without division. THAT is your Trinity.)
In recent weeks and months I have been dealing with, or rather I should say God has been dealing with me, about the Season of Grace, basically the 490-year period between the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple. The period seems significant to me--a great portion of the Bible is dedicated to it--and I was surprised to find that the Jews have no name for it. I deduced The Season of Grace from Victor Alexander's translations from the ancient Aramaic and his comments therein.
What I have gotten from God is that this was (and is) a God-planned and executed image of ourselves in this life . . . HIGHLIGHTED. This was God banging a gong to get our attention; it's a specially constructed illustration. The prophets screeched it: "Seventy sevens shall rest upon your nation and upon the town of your reverence, so as the obligations may be concluded and the sins may be curtailed, so that the abominations shall be abandoned, and that they may usher in the eternal righteousness, such as the vision and the prophesies (sic) may be fulfilled, and to the Anointed One we may commit our blessings" (Daniel 9:24 Alexander). You can hardly see it through all the flags.
I thought God was interested in the difference between the translation above and its fulfillment and the Hebrew/Jewish version. But no, there is a PATTERN here. He is slapping me upside along the head with a two-by-four screaming, "Look. at. the. pattern." Okay, okay.
Oh. The pattern. In the Season of Grace. There is a pattern: rebellion against God leads to the destruction of the first Temple. This leads to captivity, threat and hardship, a common life for awhile, a return and rebuilding the Temple to better than before, the coming of Christ and . . . oh, yeah, the rebellion.
Two heads existed at the end of the Season of Grace: there were the people who had been prepared by the teachers of righteousness for the Messiah--who became the manifestation of the Messiah--and there were those who rejected them. I do not even suppose a single individual who was rejected, but a whole class of people who were persecuted--the "Christians" (as those Jews came to be called at Antioch). They were the Manifestation of the Man who is "Jesus Christ." I have got that, Christianity, and I have got the rebellion. God is saying, "Wake up and be aware of the opportunity that is before you . . . and which can be lost if you don't shape up and fly right."
Failure is at hand in spite of all the progress I have made. The Jews produced the early prophets, but they had also produced idolaters in the first Temple. Given the season of Grace, here they were at the end again with prophets . . . and rebels in the second temple. Adam had his corruption in Cain, but when through the Antediluvian Patriarchs he attained the rest that is Noah, he floated above the corruption unto the new world. That was good, but then he got drunk and Kham went all evily. Moses was doing pretty good with revelations and all, until he struck the rock in anger. Israel crossed the Jordan and Jericho fell, but Achan wanted other riches, and it led to slaughter. I have the feeling that I could go on for a month and not exhaust all the illustrations contrasting God's proffered success and ultimate failure. But it is never final. We pop up here again. Have another go, Dan. You want not to fail? Get the idols out of the Temple and finish with a single mind.
For about as long as God has been dealing with me about the Season of Grace, I have been reflecting on what might have been if I had not been a complete idiot when I was young. A bunch of what-ifs: "I COULD HAVE . . ." but didn't. That is looking back. Looking forward, "I CAN . . . I CAN get the idols out of my consciousness, and I CAN keep the Torah (i.e., its meaning, mystically understood). I CAN have the anointing."
We are all given the measure of self-control for righteousness and holiness (Acts 24:25), but if we pass on that and desire instead any other things we forfeit the opportunity. It's got to be a singular desire. Think right. Got to try to not be a complete idiot again.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
12:27 AM
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