Issachar Gazette: Common Sense in an Age of Vain Ideology
Abre mis ojos
1. Government Functions and Separation of Powers: God's Authority and our Delegated Authority
Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us.
James 4:12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
The executive function of the saints - Psalm 149: 5-9
Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honour for all his godly ones.
Note: Vengeance is the Lord's; we are to execute His orders, not ours. Romans 12:19-21
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave itto the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”1 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
2. God makes a Covenant with Abraham and our inheritance through Abraham
Genesis 12: 1-3 (The Call of Abram)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 15: 18-21 (possession of Land)
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
No possession until 400 years of captivity of Abraham's descendants (in Egypt) had passed: awaiting the iniquity of the Amorites (fullness of sin which leads to to the land vomiting you out!) Genesis 15: 13-16,
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”


Constant attempts to divide the land
British Mandate

3. Our inheritance as Gentile Believers in Jesus Christ is through Abraham; we are engrafted into the vine: Galatians 3:6-14
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
4. The Creation Order
a) Presumption of Liberty (General/Exception) - you are free to eat Genesis 2:15-17 (to eat is to know, to bring something into yourself)
b) Two Trees in the Garden: Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of life: Genesis 2:8-17; Rev 2:7 (who eats from the tree of life); Rev 22 (healing for the nations)
5. Our role in the administration of justice: Abraham petitions God with respect to Sodom - from 50 to 10 righteous men: Genesis 18:22-33
Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
6. God reasons with us (dialogues) : Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
7. Due Process and Natural Justice at the Garden of Eden: integral to justice of the Creation Order - Genesis 3:8-13 : Adam, where are you? Eve, what have you done?
8. Sin brings moral disorder and confusion - subverts Creation Order
a) From the Moral Order to moral confusion: mixing of seeds until the end of the age
Leviticus 19:19: mixing of seeds
‘Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.
Matt 13:24-30: wheat and tares
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
Isaiah 5:20: good = evil, evil= good
“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’
b) Eve added to the commandment: from "do not eat" (God) to "do not touch" (Eve)
c) Wages of sin is death - and moral confusion - to eat is to take something into you and to become corrupted.
d) Barred from Tree of Life: perpetual existence in a state of corruption; God had a plan - Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the earth - to redeem us from the effects of sin - Revelation 13:8 cf: Hebrew 10:4
e) The Land is Cursed - First Curse: Genesis 3:17-19 cf: Genesis 1:11-12 when the land was blessed.
f) All Creation Groans and waits and the evil appear to prosper with impunity: Romans 8:22;
How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, "He will not see what happens to us."; Jeremiah 12:4
You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’”The Book of Remembrance. Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. Malachi 3:14; 18
For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked;always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. Psalm 73: 3-20
9. Man loses dominion (Gen 1:26-30) but Jesus demonstrates dominion (Mark 4:35-40)
10. Function of Torah - to bring Moral Clarity (and despair at incapacity) Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.
11. Christ becomes a curse for us:
Galatians 3:13
2 Cor 5:21
Acts 5:30
Galatians 4:5
12. Mixing ceases; distinction restored:
Malachi 3:18
13. Judgment for those who mistreated Israel and who blessed Israel
Obadiah 1:15
Psalm 83
Jeremiah 25: 17ff "He will plead His case with all flesh/He will give those who are wicked to the sword"
14. Judgment for the Nations: sheep and goat nations
Matt 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
15. Day of the Lord - punishment for evidoers
Malachi 4:1-3
Psalm 73:18-20
16. Great White Throne Judgment : Rev 20:11-15
17. Babel Reversed: Rev 5:9-10 (Different Tribes, Common Faith, One God: Unity in Diversity)
9 And they sang a new song:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
cf: Genesis 11: Babel - common ideology and tongue - Fragmented Unity through Diversity i.e. diversity without unity
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech
6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Tower of babel and Chinese language
Acts 2: Pentecost: Common faith, Common Tongue, Diverse Audience
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”