Searching by Flickr User Paul Bence, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
It all started with a moth. Well, maybe it didn’t all start there since the term bug had already been in use to define issues that made technology unworkable, but the moth in the system in 1947 did make the term more accepted and widely used. In software, one tiny blip of code can throw off everything to where the program refuses to perform as planned. No one likes their systems, or any of their electronics, to become buggy, but if you’d like to read a bit more about bugs and their origins in electronics, visit the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug.
In today’s very long reading from Deuteronomy 28:7 through Deuteronomy 28:69 in The Complete Jewish Bible (through Deuteronomy 29:1 in other versions like The Amplified Bible), we learn that no one likes their crops and trees to be buggy either. Moses continues the words from yesterday’s promises to Israel, beginning with more blessings. The first one promises that enemies who come against Israel will come at them one way but flee seven ways. God will command blessings on Israel as He establishes them to be a holy people to Himself.
The reading lists an abundance of blessings and prosperity upon the people, their lands, their offspring, their livestock, and the offspring of their livestock. It focuses on the blessing as a result of the people keeping God’s laws, so that all the world would know He is God and they are His people. God says He will make Israel the head and not the tail. God adds that all the people of the earth will see that Israel is called by God’s name, and they will be afraid.
All these promises are given to any who will walk straight in the paths of God and not turn to the right or the left of their own ways or the ways of false gods. If the people disobey, they still have promises, but they’re not the kinds they want; they’re curses! Through Moses, God tells Israel that if they are not watchful to keep His commandments, He (God) will send curses, rebuke, and confusion in every thing to which Israel puts her hand. The curses will devour Israel until it is destroyed, and she has become the tail and not the head.
The abundant curses include consumption, fever, inflammation, sword, drought, mildew, and all the boils and diseases of the Egyptians. Israel will plant vineyards and fields and never consume them; build houses and never live in them; and have other nations eat the fruit of her labors. In addition, their animals will be slain before their eyes, and their children will be taken by others. The people will become blind, but when they can see, they will be driven to insanity by what they view, and that view will include constant bugs living in all their trees and produce. Eventually, Israel will come at an enemy one way and run from the enemy seven ways.
God tells Israel that all these curses will be signs and wonders to warn other nations, and Israel’s descendants, that Israel is in bad shape because she did not follow the Lord with heartfelt joy and gratefulness for all the abundance God gave her. Her promises of uncountable seed will turn to a nation of few people, and she will be scattered. She will be a slave to false gods, have no assurance of life, become hopeless, and never be satisfied–always wishing in the evening that it was morning, and in the morning that is was evening. Eventually, she will end up in bondage in Egypt again.
There are more curses than blessings, and much of this appears to be prophesies that have already come to pass for physical Israel. I know that God never gives up on His promises, so I trust that He has ways to deal with those that have been blinded to The Messiah, but in the meantime, we who are grafted into Abraham’s seed should take these prophesies to heart as well. Like Paul said in Romans 11:21, if God didn’t spare the natural branches, what makes the grafted-in branches think He will spare us?
The curses of God are the opposite of the blessings, but that also means that the blessings are the opposite of the curses. We don’t have to be cursed! If we seek first the kingdom of God and ALL His righteousness, and if we serve Him with gratefulness and joy, we have an abundance of blessing to lean on, including that He will protect us from any enemy that comes against us. God’s programs and systems are perfect, written and designed without any bugs, but mankind has brought in corruption in the form of sin. Fortunately, God also designed a failsafe in the Holy Blood of Christ, so He can “debug” our lives and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repent, and turn your life-program over to God. Let Yahveh Almighty be your Systems Engineer today–and forever.
September 4, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, blessings, bugs, bugs in the system, Complete Jewish Bible, curses, Deuteronomy, disobedience, Israel, obedience, Scripture, Torah commentary, Torah Portions |
Leave a comment
She Swallowed a Fly by Flickr User Gordon McLean, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
Click image to open new tab/window to view original image and to access user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
How is it that so many of my topics remind me of songs? I guess I think in lyrical ways. Of course, thinking of this cute children’s song is better than actually thinking of swallowing bugs, don’t you think?
In today’s reading from Leviticus 11:33 through Leviticus 11:47 (the end of the chapter), we pick up where the reading yesterday was talking about not touching the carcass of an unclean animal. It goes on to say that if the unclean thing touches a clay pot, a stove, or an oven, they must be broken. I’m guessing stoves and ovens were also made of clay, so I guess by their being porous, it made it impossible to clean the germs effectively. But, I also think of our human flesh any time I think of clay, so this says to me once again how cleansing our flesh from something unclean will take some brokenness. Thankfully, we also know the Master Potter who can remake our broken vessels when we keep them in His hands.
As the reading continues, we find out that any swarming insect that swarms the ground is not only unclean, but God describes it as detestable. I can agree with that description, and I’m glad I now have a reason to turn down any kind of bug-related cuisine someone might try to offer me. Of course, now I’m wondering about those little red bugs they use to color things like strawberry yogurt and Starbucks’ strawberry Frapp. (In case you haven’t heard about this, here’s a link to the article at Snopes.com that verifies its truth, and there are links for more info at the bottom of the article.)
And that’s it for this reading and this week, so I bid you Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath Peace) as you bring your week to a close. As a final note, in preparing for this article, I was looking to see if there was a Scripture that ever declared any of these “unclean” animals and bugs as being clean, and it turns out there is not one. While the biblical dietary laws are not something of a Heaven and Hell matter, I certainly think its worth more study as to best practices. I have never looked into it before, but as I learn little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, I invite you to join me in my discoveries and to share your own thoughts and discoveries with me. I did find an interesting article at http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/RA/k/1049/Clean-Unclean-Meats.htm and I welcome any thoughts or commentary on its contents. We’re all in this together, friends, and I value your time in reading my posts and the comments and replies you add to them. Many blessings to you all!
March 21, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, bugs, clean, Complete Jewish Bible, Creator, crystalwriter, dietary laws, food, God, Holy Bible, insects, Israel, kosher, laws, Leviticus, Lord, Moses, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, Portions, Scripture, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, unclean, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh |
2 Comments
Crystal Writes A Blog 
Bugs in the System
Searching by Flickr User Paul Bence, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
It all started with a moth. Well, maybe it didn’t all start there since the term bug had already been in use to define issues that made technology unworkable, but the moth in the system in 1947 did make the term more accepted and widely used. In software, one tiny blip of code can throw off everything to where the program refuses to perform as planned. No one likes their systems, or any of their electronics, to become buggy, but if you’d like to read a bit more about bugs and their origins in electronics, visit the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug.
In today’s very long reading from Deuteronomy 28:7 through Deuteronomy 28:69 in The Complete Jewish Bible (through Deuteronomy 29:1 in other versions like The Amplified Bible), we learn that no one likes their crops and trees to be buggy either. Moses continues the words from yesterday’s promises to Israel, beginning with more blessings. The first one promises that enemies who come against Israel will come at them one way but flee seven ways. God will command blessings on Israel as He establishes them to be a holy people to Himself.
The reading lists an abundance of blessings and prosperity upon the people, their lands, their offspring, their livestock, and the offspring of their livestock. It focuses on the blessing as a result of the people keeping God’s laws, so that all the world would know He is God and they are His people. God says He will make Israel the head and not the tail. God adds that all the people of the earth will see that Israel is called by God’s name, and they will be afraid.
All these promises are given to any who will walk straight in the paths of God and not turn to the right or the left of their own ways or the ways of false gods. If the people disobey, they still have promises, but they’re not the kinds they want; they’re curses! Through Moses, God tells Israel that if they are not watchful to keep His commandments, He (God) will send curses, rebuke, and confusion in every thing to which Israel puts her hand. The curses will devour Israel until it is destroyed, and she has become the tail and not the head.
The abundant curses include consumption, fever, inflammation, sword, drought, mildew, and all the boils and diseases of the Egyptians. Israel will plant vineyards and fields and never consume them; build houses and never live in them; and have other nations eat the fruit of her labors. In addition, their animals will be slain before their eyes, and their children will be taken by others. The people will become blind, but when they can see, they will be driven to insanity by what they view, and that view will include constant bugs living in all their trees and produce. Eventually, Israel will come at an enemy one way and run from the enemy seven ways.
God tells Israel that all these curses will be signs and wonders to warn other nations, and Israel’s descendants, that Israel is in bad shape because she did not follow the Lord with heartfelt joy and gratefulness for all the abundance God gave her. Her promises of uncountable seed will turn to a nation of few people, and she will be scattered. She will be a slave to false gods, have no assurance of life, become hopeless, and never be satisfied–always wishing in the evening that it was morning, and in the morning that is was evening. Eventually, she will end up in bondage in Egypt again.
There are more curses than blessings, and much of this appears to be prophesies that have already come to pass for physical Israel. I know that God never gives up on His promises, so I trust that He has ways to deal with those that have been blinded to The Messiah, but in the meantime, we who are grafted into Abraham’s seed should take these prophesies to heart as well. Like Paul said in Romans 11:21, if God didn’t spare the natural branches, what makes the grafted-in branches think He will spare us?
The curses of God are the opposite of the blessings, but that also means that the blessings are the opposite of the curses. We don’t have to be cursed! If we seek first the kingdom of God and ALL His righteousness, and if we serve Him with gratefulness and joy, we have an abundance of blessing to lean on, including that He will protect us from any enemy that comes against us. God’s programs and systems are perfect, written and designed without any bugs, but mankind has brought in corruption in the form of sin. Fortunately, God also designed a failsafe in the Holy Blood of Christ, so He can “debug” our lives and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Repent, and turn your life-program over to God. Let Yahveh Almighty be your Systems Engineer today–and forever.
Share this post:
September 4, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, blessings, bugs, bugs in the system, Complete Jewish Bible, curses, Deuteronomy, disobedience, Israel, obedience, Scripture, Torah commentary, Torah Portions | Leave a comment