When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
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This is an optional Old Testament selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 11. If chosen, it will next be read aloud in a church by a reader on Sunday July 22, 2018. It is important because it tells how the LORD is not concerned with buildings made of worldly materials, for He is looking for buildings of flesh who will become His servants.
In the first verse where we read, “When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,” one can look at this as David and the kingdom of Israel having reached a symbolic Sabbath.
David is now settled into the role of King of Israel. He has overcome all the threats to the safety and security of a nation. He has built a house of cedar in the City of David. All the work of that creation is complete. At that point, “the Lord had given him rest,” which, as the Sabbath was deemed by God to be holy, the “rest” means a focus turned inward, because the outward work is finished.
Seeing that symbolism, look at how David turned to his prophet Nathan, who would be like the court of David’s high priest. One could imagine that the bringing of the ark into Jerusalem called for one to be the man in charge of the tabernacle. Nathan had that position; thus David called upon Nathan to talk about building a permanent house for the LORD for that purpose.
After decades of Saul having to fiercely fight Philistines, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, Moabites, and the kings of Zobah, a time of peace and tranquility had come by David’s rise as King of Israel. This became the final phase of hostilities and the beginning of the establishment of the House of David. That ‘Sabbath time of rest’ can then be seen as holy. David was surely holy, as Nathan said: “The Lord is with you.”
The name “Nathan” means, “Gift, He Will Give, or Given,” which can be hinting at Nathan having the gift of the Holy Spirit, which allowed him to be a prophet. Thus, David speaking with Nathan symbolizes the true nature of a Church of Christ, where two had gathered that the Holy Spirit possessed; and they supported one another as committed to serve God.
With Nathan speaking from the Holy Spirit about David’s relationship with God (he was not simply being a “Yes man” to get in good with the king), we then see how Nathan spoke with God (unsolicited) that night, in a prophetic dream. God told Nathan to remind David that He is a mobile God. Since God freed the Israelites from Egyptian oppression, He had continuously moved with them wherever they had gone. A tent or a tabernacle (a large tent) for which the Ark of the Covenant had been stored meant God was always with the Israelites and not in some place that made moving it quite difficult.
What would happen to God is someone was to overrun Jerusalem and take possession of the city, along with the fixed house of cedar, with the ark inside?
God told Nathan to pass this along to David (paraphrasing): “If you keep Me in a tent or tabernacle, then I will protect Israel just like it was when Joshua and Sampson were sent to judge the people.” Judges are sent when the people recognize they have sinned against God and thus repented their sins, praying for guidance. When a judge of God is in place, the people know to obeyed God’s commands, through that judge. David would be enabled to lead the Israelites to righteous ways of living and thus prosperous times.
That would be known as the House of David, which would always be known as a holy nation under the One God. By the LORD being with David, his Kingdom of Israel would become etched in history as the greatest. The Star of David would become Israel’s shield of identity.
What can be confusing in what God told Nathan is when we read, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
This can be mistaken for King Solomon, who was an offspring of David, who did build a house” for God, called Solomon’s Temple However, God was not prophesying to Nathan about that young son of David, who was still decades away from birth, but who David would name, through Nathan, to be his successor.
If God came to Nathan to tell him that He did not want a fixed structure to be placed in, which would be like a prison that locked God from the Israelites, then God wanted to be forever free to move with the people as needed. A fixed house would be like the pagan idols other people worshipped, those of other nations, made to be sold and set upon shelves in various house rooms. A permanent temple would be like the statues and monuments to the many gods, like those Paul saw while in Greece. The Greek and Roman temples to their gods have long fallen into ruin, those gods now related with myth. Building a place of brick and mortar for God would be like erecting Him a tomb or mausoleum, meaning God would be seen as dead to the Israelites. Only the memory of God would then be kept alive in a building of stone.
Solomon would begin to lay God to rest in the fourth year of his reign, when he laid the foundation for his Temple for God. Seven years later that tomb would be complete.
That temple would not be “the throne of his kingdom forever,” as Solomon’s death meant the split of Israel into two kingdoms, with the northern kingdom erecting a duplicate temple in Bethel. That temple would be destroyed by the priests of Baal, while the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed by the conquering Babylonians, centuries later.
The ruins of Jeroboam’s temple built in Bethel.
Because of that history, the truth of God’s prophecy to Nathan is He foretold of an “offspring after” David (“from the root of Jesse” – Isaiah 11:01 & 11:10, repeated by Paul in Romans 15:12), which was Jesus of Nazareth (born in Bethlehem). As a descendant of the Tribe of Benjamin, as having a heritage from Bethlehem, and in the line of David, Jesus came “forth from that body.” Jesus Christ would establish “his kingdom” (Christ the King”) on earth and “build a house for God’s name” (Christianity), sent by God to “establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
The Persians would rebuild a Second Temple in Jerusalem. The Herodians would spend many decades beautifying that building (Herod’s Temple). Then the Romans would destroy that physical building and once again a building made of stone and mortar would prove to be temporary, at best, far from one lasting forever.
Jesus Christ would be killed, buried in a tomb, then resurrected so he could teach his disciples to become him reborn. After Jesus ascended to heaven, to sit at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ was sent back to the earthly realm the next day, being reborn into a new house of God that can never be destroyed. The Holy Spirit breathed the Ark of the Covenant into new tabernacles, who were mobile Apostles. That spread of the House of God into Apostles has not yet ceased. This is the truth of what God told Nathan.
Jesus was the temple of the LORD. The Ark of the Covenant, which held the Law of Moses, being placed within an Apostle then fulfills how Jesus said God writes His laws on the hearts of His faithful. That lost ark no longer sits in a tent, tabernacle, or cedar house, as God rests between the cherubim in the hearts of true Christians. This makes every Apostle-Saint, who have all been reborn as Jesus Christ, be the throne of God that sits inside the covering that is the Holy Spirit, as the everlasting house of God.
As an optional Old Testament selection to be read on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s personal ministry should be underway, the message is to be the place where God is enthroned. A true Christian is called to realize that Jesus is not in heaven waiting for all hell to break loose on earth, before he swoops down on a white horse, with fire in his eyes and a double-edged sword to smite all evil coming from his mouth. A true Christian IS JESUS CHRIST, reborn on the earth to serve God, just as Jesus of Nazareth did two thousand years ago. A minister is thus the House of God, not some fixed building on Main Street (a building that is vacant more than it is filled).
A minister reads how Nathan said to David, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you,” and realizes the “mind” of David was greater than the brain of a smart human being. Long before God sent His Son to be born as Jesus, giving him the Mind of the Christ, God sent the same Mind to all those who judged Israel by setting the standard of righteousness in the land. David had the same Mind of Christ leading his actions, because God was in his heart.
In fact, the Hebrew that has been translated as, “do what you have in mind, because the Lord is with you,” actually says “heart,” rather than “mind.” The Hebrew segment of words, “kōl ’ă·šerbil·ḇā·ḇə·ḵā,” actually state, “all that [is] in your heart.” As the heart goes, the mind will follow.
The brain acts naturally, needing the heart simply for a supply of blood, but the brain acts without any need for emotions. The inner works of the human body are naturally controlled by the base brain lobe (the medulla). Still, man has a bigger brain that those of animals. When the spiritual heart controls the brain’s functions, then the mind of the soul amends natural acts. When God is within one’s heart, then the Holy Spirit has joined with one’s soul, meaning the Christ Mind leads one to reject natural acts that are not righteous.
David and Nathan had the same mind, although they were in different physical bodies. God was in both of their hearts, so their brains did not lead their actions. They sacrificed self to the Will of the LORD. Jesus was the same and so were his Apostles, who each were reborn as their Savior.
This is a lesson learned by those who become ministers of the LORD; and it is the lesson taught to seekers of truth. When God is housed in a mobile minister, then the problem of getting the seeker to come to a church is solved. The ark is in the tent of the Holy Spirit, moving as directed by God, so the temple of the LORD can go to the seekers.
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
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This is an optional Old Testament selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 11. If chosen, it will next be read aloud in a church by a reader on Sunday July 22, 2018. It is important because it prophesies the coming of Christianity, where Salvation comes when one is led by the true Shepherd.
One should know that Jeremiah was a prophet of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, but the LORD called him to preach about the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity its people would suffer. He was born into a priestly family; but he went to the people to minister, as he was not welcomed by the temple priests. During his life both Israel and Judah were influenced heavily by Baal worshipers and their priests; and Jeremiah had made them enemies by proclaiming them false prophets. Knowing that history makes it easier to grasp what God was telling Jeremiah in this reading.
In the first verse, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,” it is important to know the Hebrew words “ra’ah” (written “rō·‘îm”) – translated as “the shepherds” – and “marith” (written “mar·‘î·ṯî”) offer insight through the similarities of their focus. The word “ra‘ah” accurately states “pastors,” where the word is “figurative of ruler, and teacher, accusative of people, flock.” When one sees that use of metaphor as being who powerful “Woe” (from first word importance – capitalization) will befall, then “sheep” can be read figuratively as “flock” or “multitude, which have been in God’s “pasturing” and “shepherding.”
A whole lotta woe going on!
This figure of speech is then how Judaic priest read this Scripture and it is how God intended Jeremiah to understand His words. God was not irked by little boy shepherds who let their father’s sheep get lost. God was angered at the bad rule of the Israelites by the bad kings of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (“Woe be to shepherds”), who let in bad shepherding priests (“who destroy and scatter the sheep”) that did not serve the God of Israel (“of my pasture”).
This means that the Promised Land that had been Canaan was “the pasture” where the flock of Israelites had been placed, to be fed and cared for. In that way, some “sheep” (rams) were raised to “shepherd” status, as they were the “rulers and teachers of the people” (the metaphor of “shepherd”), beginning with Moses and Aaron, passing to Joshua and the series of judges and prophets of Israel, including King David. Those shepherds unified the flock and kept them safe, doing so for the LORD – the figurative owner of the land and the wealth thereof, measured in the number of heads of Israelites.
As a prophecy of God’s actions against the destruction and scattering of His flock, we read, “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing.” The use of the first person here says that God “alone” will keep the evil masters from achieving what they sought: the destruction and the scattering of those who serve the true LORD, YHWH. This even includes all those who sacrificed with their lives at the swords of the wicked, because all God’s chosen souls will be brought “back to their fold.”
It should be grasped that God was speaking to Jeremiah about the faith of those souls destroyed and scattered. Despite all the trauma caused by evil shepherds, they retained their faith. There were many who held dear to their religious tenets and never surrendered to the influence of those who served other gods. As such, those shepherds that would be raised up by God, “who will shepherd” the lost sheep, were those souls who were unjustly persecuted in human body. This makes Jeremiah’s words be a prophecy of the Apostles of Jesus Christ, although individual prophets and leaders maintained reason for the Israelites to keep faith.
Still, only those shepherds who would be descended from Jesus of Nazareth, through the Holy Spirit, could remove the fears (heartfelt emotions), return courage to their being (strength of heart), and make the lost know they are found. They would place God in the hearts of the faithful by passing on the Holy Spirit, making each a shepherd be raised spiritually by the LORD. Each Apostle became synonymous with a servant knighted by the Trinity.
Kneel before your sovereign and be renamed Sir, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Rise Sir knight.
Certainly, one could see how God raised up the Persians to overthrow the Babylonians. One could see Cyrus as a shepherd who allowed the scattered Jews to return to Jerusalem. He would rebuild the temple destroyed by the Babylonians; but none of the Persians would return the pasture’s ownership to those lost sheep. The Persians had won the land in battle and deserved the spoils as victors. Then, the Greeks, and after the Romans would gain the upper hand militarily and become the owners and dominators. This history of empirical rises and falls does not match the prophecy of Jeremiah. This shows the prophecy has a higher meaning, which is the advent of Christianity; and that requires the fulfillment of Jesus Christ being raised.
God then prophesied this coming to Jeremiah, when He said, “The days are surely coming … when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” By God naming David, whose six-pointed star was the shield of the nation of Israel (all twelve tribes), “a righteous Branch” (where “ṣe·maḥ” is capitalized in translation) means an offshoot of new growth, one stemming from the line that had fallen in destruction. This is how Isaiah (a mentor of Jeremiah) prophesied “a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse.” (Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10)
The righteous “stump” (Hebrew “mig-gê-za‘,” meaning “stem, stock, stump”) of David would become known as Judaism, which began in Babylonian captivity and returned to Jerusalem as those who clung to land and a new temple. That branch was severed and then grafted back onto its former shell. The “righteous Branch” raised would be that religion named after the fulfillment of prophecies of a Messiah. Many would claim to be that raised shepherd, but none (not even Jesus of Nazareth) would be followed in large numbers. At the time of Jesus’ death, the lives he touched was only a small sample of what Judaism was. However, the religion that followed the rise of Apostles, in the name of Jesus Christ, as a religion that exists to this day and as a separate Branch of Davidic religion, those who have expresses belief in the One God (YHWH) have far exceeded those of Judaism.
The Jews remain the stem from the stump of David because they are still a lost flock that follows no new Shepherd. They failed then in their commitment to serve God by living righteously, as priests to YHWH; and by rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, they continue to fail in this regard. Christians grew into a dominant religion, due to a spread that was human servants (ministers of the LORD) filled with the Holy Spirit. They, in turn, passed that righteousness to the faithful through their ministries. However, after centuries of Saints propagating the lands, searching for the lost, Christianity (as a dogmatic organization) also has suffered the same destruction and scattering as that of Israel and Judah.
The true Branch of David is then relative to those who act righteously, not who professes a belief in God. After 70 A.D., the Jews were again destroyed and scattered to the lands of the world. Once again, their fate was due to their rejection of Jesus and losing the protection of God, fulfilling this prophecy of Jeremiah. The Jews became lost sheep again; and that has been their mantra ever since.
Christianity has been become equally scattered into denominations and sects, many of which have hatred in their hearts for each other. For every new branch (lower case purposefully) created, the flock is further scattered. New leaders pop up for each, claiming to be the new Messiah, while also claiming ownership of all the profits that comes with that new sect’s turf. All these leaders are no different than the prophets of Baal or the Pharisees of Judea. They come with desires set on possessing his or her own pasture with the booty of sheep and goats as their own. The false shepherds still exist.
It is this element of one true divine line (“a Branch”) that makes this prophecy of Jeremiah’s mean Jesus Christ was not simply a shepherd raised by God, one who would lead the flock, remove their fears, give them courage, and show them they have been found by God. Jesus of Nazareth was a Sacrificial Lamb of the flock, in the sense that God sent His Son to be born, then die, resurrect, and ascend back to God.
God is the owner of the flock and they are to be pastured by His Son forevermore. This means that Jesus Christ is then God incarnate on the earthly plane, as a human being born of a woman, such that Jesus Christ was the “I” stated in this prophecy of Jeremiah that would gather the lost sheep and bring them back to the fold. However, Jesus is not God in heaven, since he is the Shepherd on earth, which means his death sequence was the beginning of a lineage (“a Branch”) that would place the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ in countless sheep.
The shepherds who would be raised thereafter would be the replications of Jesus Christ in Apostles. Jesus Christ would “reign as king” over human bodies who made themselves sacrificial lambs unto God. Jesus Christ would “deal wisely” as Apostles filled with the wisdom of the Christ Mind. The flocks “shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” when they have been raised as the Good Shepherd resurrected.
When we then read, “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety,” this goes well beyond the names of two fallen nations. It does not foretell of the scattered and destroyed gaining their beloved land back. They killed that Covenant when they became a stump. This means Judah and Israel are statements of the characteristics of a shepherd that will be raised, based on the meanings associated with those names.
The name Judah means, “Let Him (God) Be Praised.” Thus, those who praise God (He sits on His throne in their hearts) will be saved. The name “Israel” (while debatable) means “He Will Be Prince With God,” where those who sacrifice self to be reborn as Jesus Christ are the Resurrection of the Son of God, once again raised in the world. When one has allowed the Son of God his earthly kingdom (one’s physical body and spiritual soul), then having “God’s (Vicarious) Governor” (an alternate translation of “Israel”) control one’s being, then one can “live in safety,” assured of everlasting life. This means God named Judah and Israel as requisites for shepherding His sheep.
Seeing the meaning of the names Judah and Israel, one then reads, “And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”’ This is then God prophesying the name of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of whom will be resurrected in human beings of faith and devotion.
This name is a translation of the Hebrew “Yah·wehṣiḏ·qê·nū,” which others collectively call “Jehovah Tsidkenu.” “Jehovah Tsidkenu” can be translated as Hebrew, stating “The Lord is our righteousness.” That is not a name, such that a name should be condensed from those two word, as a combined form new word. By doing an Internet search of “Lord is our righteousness,” several links appear that offer interpretations of “Jehovah Tsidkenu” (one here); but none of them place a focus on a single name that conveys that message. None of them take that phrase and show it as a prophesied name to be watchful of, like Judah and Israel are single names that translate as phrases.
This means the key word “ṣiḏ·qê·nū” needs to be understood. The word come from the root “tsedeq,” which is why others analyze the spelling similar to Jeremiah’s – “Tsidkenu.” The word “tsedeq” means, “rightness, righteousness, what is right, just, justice, vindication, and righteous cause.” It is related to the Hebrew word “tsadak” (or “tsadeq),” which has the same meaning, while adding “acquit, acquitted, lead to righteousness, properly restored, and proved righteous.” That has to be seen as the constant characteristic by which ALL Christians are to be measured.
In the history of names in the Old Testament, this word would become combined as a name that is an indication of this state of righteousness and is relative to Yahweh. In that history there are names that can be listed as possible recreations: Jeshua, Isaiah, Jehozadak, Zadok, and Melchisedek. Those names all imply individual born, who were given names they lived up to, by becoming those whose righteousness or salvation could be due to their service to the LORD. Therefore, all of these names deserve analytic inspection based on this prophecy of Jeremiah.
The name “Jeshua” is the root of the name known as Joshua, where the Hebrew word “yasha‘” is combined with “Yah-,” yielding a name that means “Yah Is Salvation” or “God Is Deliverance.” Of course, the Greek name “Jesus” or “Iēsous” is deemed a variation of “Jeshua.” Thus “Jesus” is a name that means “God Is Salvation.” Certainly those who interpret “Jehovah Tsidkenu” associate that name with Jesus Christ.
While “Righteousness” is not the same as “Salvation,” righteousness is the path one must take to reach that destination. When Jesus said, “I am the way,” that says the way to salvation is righteousness. In my opinion, “the LORD of our righteousness” comes through the Trinity in each individual, where a marriage to God in one’s heart brings about the cleansing of sins from one soul by the Holy Spirit, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ in one’s body. It is then that presence of “Jeshua” that becomes the “Lord of one’s righteousness.”
The name “Isaiah” represents an instance where the letter “j” is a relatively modern invention, as before the letter “i” was used in place of a “j.” The Hebrew letters YHWH are pronounced in English as “Yahweh,” but in German the “y” is pronounced like a “j.” Additionally, in German a “w’ is pronounced like a “v” in English, so the same YHWH is enunciated as “JeHoVaH.” From this, one can then see how “Isaiah” is a combination of the same root found in Jeshua” – “yasha‘” – with the ending now the abbreviated form of YHWH. This means Isaiah bears the same meaning as Jeshua: Yahweh Is Salvation or Salvation Of The Lord.
The parallel of Isaiah that is Jeshua can then be seen as Isaiah being a resurrection of the spirit of Joshua, who was a righteous judge of Israel. Isaiah was a contemporary of Jeremiah, said to be his mentor, so they were two prophets gathered in God’s name (as a church). They reflect how all judges and prophets are cases of the Lord raising up shepherds for His flock. The same spirit can then be seen in prophets as was in Jesus Christ, who would come later and also be known as a prophet of Yahweh.
This brings out the commonality of the Christ Mind, where all prophets hear the word of God speaking to them. That word can only be heard by those who are sacrificial lambs, letting the din of self go so the divine word can be heard. This is how the same comes upon Apostles, whose king within brings about the personal identification of “the LORD Of My Righteousness,” which assures one’s salvation.
The name “Jehozadak” is said to be: “Jehozadak is a high priest, a son of Seraiah (1 Chronicles 6:14) and father of Jeshua, both high priests. Jehozadak was among the exiles to Babylon, and his son Jeshua was among the returnees (Ezra 3:2).” (Abarim Publications) This name clearly combines “Jehovah” (YHWH) with the Hebrew word “sadeq,” which is rooted in the Hebrew word “Tsidkenu,” as “tsadeq.” Notice how the history shows this high priest, whose name means “Yahweh Is Justified” or “Yah Is Righteous,” was the father of a son he named Jeshua.
There is more to that than coincidence, when this prophecy of Jeremiah is analyzed. God told Jeremiah, in essence, the new “righteous Branch” will be ruled “by a king [who will] deal wisely” in the same manner as when one high priest was shown to be risen in an offspring. This means an Apostle is like Jeshua, born of Jehozadak, where Jesus of Nazareth is Spiritually the high priest of one Apostle (a Saint), from whom is born another Apostle (also a Saint), with all Apostles reborn as Jesus Christ (the high priest within).
It is important to see how Jehozadak means “the Lord Has Made Just” or “Yahweh Has Justified,” where the name conveys a change of being. For one to be “just” or “justified,” one has to be transformed from a being that was previously “unjust” or “without faith” and “dishonored.” This leads one back to the beginning of this reading, where the LORD said, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture.” Those who have been destroyed and scattered by the bad shepherds will resort to survival mode and that represents sins. That wildness is where one finds guilt from their own wretched states of being, from their own misfortune, sorrow and misery as the inner call to repent and seek salvation through righteous ways. Lost sheep call out for salvation. Still, only the power of God within them can bring about that change.
The name “Zadok,” who might not be well known, was that of a priest of David, who became high priest under Solomon. David placed the Ark of the Covenant in the care of Zadok during a rebellion, and Zadok anointed Solomon as King of Israel. This name is not a combined form because “sadeq” is the name. This name makes a direct statement of “Righteous” or “Just.”
This leads one to analyze the name of the high priest and King of Salem, “Melchisedek.” The same word found combined in Jehozadak, “sadeq,” is found in this name as well. The combinations here are of the Hebrew words “melek” and “sadeq,” where the result is a name that pronounces, “the King of Righteousness.”
This makes the history of Melchisedek important, as he offered bread and wine to Abraham; and David wrote (in Psalm 110:4) how God told him, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” David was a king, thus a King of Righteousness.” In Paul’s letter to the Hebrews of Rome, he wrote how Jesus Christ is also “a priest forever, in the order of Melchisedek” (Hebrews 7), which matches how God told Jeremiah, “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king.” This equates the Son of God to the Son, as Yahweh, who is truly the “King of our righteousness.”
It is said that Melchisedek (in Hebrews 7:3) was: “Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” Paul wrote those words with the wisdom of the Christ Mind, meaning he had some “inside knowledge” about this matter. This then states that Melchisedek is as John wrote in his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2) This language states the permanence of one’s soul, with few who have lived righteously forever.
This is a statement that the human embodiment of God is for the purpose of bearing the Word to mankind. Melchisedek is said to have given Abraham the robes of Adam, thereby blessing Abraham as a priest in the same order, who was at that time childless, but who would become the father of many nations. Jesus was likewise fatherless, as Joseph the human did not sire him. Again, few souls can claim God as the Father, as His Son.
This means Jesus Christ is a Spiritual king that cannot be recreated, as he is, as always, a most righteous being, as is God. Jesus Christ can pass on the robes of Adam (the Son of God) to those who have successfully passed the test of priesthood in the highest order. Apostles in the name of Jesus Christ wear those kingly robes. They are invisible, as they are worn inwardly, reflecting Christ the King has been reborn. Therefore, Jeremiah was saying for God, “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king in the order of Melchisedek.”
As an optional Old Testament reading for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s ministry to the LORD should be underway – raised up as the Good Shepherd – the message has to be: Shepherd the flock as God wants His people pastured. This means one must be found and be resurrected from the ways that a worldly life tends to destroy religious values and scatter the focus of humans, from One God to many idols. To be a shepherd raised by God, one has to have God “attend to you for your evil doings,” so the Good Shepherd can come forth.
A minister of the LORD is then one who has been brought back to the fold, safe and secure in the presence of Jesus Christ. This then leads one into ministry, as God says an Apostle “shall be fruitful and multiply.” While the simplicity of that message is to marry and have a family that one raises to serve God (just as Jehozadak begat Jeshua), the reality is one’s children are not born without a need to find their own path to righteousness. Therefore, one is fruitful by being of the living Branch of Christ that multiplies by being the food for thought for others to consume. A minister to the LORD offer the fruit of the Word to those seeking to find redemption from misfortune, sorrow and misery.
Watching over a flock does not mean yelling and screaming “Wolf!” just to see what happens. Flocks need to feel strength shown in presence, not words that cause fear.
A minister of the LORD is one sent to others, so “they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing.” In this direction, one should realize that a minister of the LORD does not randomly go out into the world preaching to those who find hatred in one speaking of the One God, Yahweh. Muslims do not want to hear such a person speak publicly. It is doubtful that atheists would welcome anyone offering religious talk of any kind. Attempting to “save” a Buddhist or Tibetan monk could become an unending argument in logic, where each response is, “I hear you saying the same thing as I,” with no benefit being the result. Thus, a minister of the LORD is for those who are lost sheep of Judaic-Christian values, but only those who are crying out, “Help me. I am lost.”
In today’s America, there are many who stand up and pretend to be ministers of Jesus Christ, who express sorrow, fear, and misery, preaching that the evil government should be replaced by an equally evil (or compoundingly evil) government, which has nothing to do with saving or justifying any specific individuals. This means we are today suffering in the same ways as was Jeremiah’s corrupted Israel and Judah.
The LORD’s ministers that are raised up to find the lost and gather them again into the fold of righteousness, do not preach hatred or violent upheaval. Hatred is an emotion felt for one’s enemies. One can only love an enemy by allowing an enemy to hate one by afar. One does not stand before an enemy and curse it for being evil. Turn the other cheek by leaving one’s enemies alone. Take care one those who cry for help, as a shepherd returning lost sheep to the fold.
A minister of the LORD can only establish one-to-one relationships that bear real fruit. Many of those have no need for an exchange of words. Being verbally attacked and not responding in kind may have an unexpected result. Simply by being an example of quiet acts of love can cause another to be touched by the Holy Spirit and seek the path of righteousness in one’s life.
When the current troubles of our times are factored in, some can read, “shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” and think that means name-calling and threats that are made in social media, by people with religious order collars around their necks. Those people are the puppets at the ends of string that are being pulled by the same equivalents as were the priests of Baal. They were allowed into the pastures of Israel and Judah by kings who married the harlots of foreign nations, a sign of mixed blood and reduced links to heritage. They are the same as were the temple scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, none of whom were good shepherds of Judea and Galilee. Anyone who preaches revolution against governments or religions is only seeking to destroy and scatter, not gather and restore. The error in misreading those words comes from overlooking “deal wisely.”
A minister of the LORD has sacrificed the Big Brain of self-importance, such that the Christ Mind brings about the wisdom of God. A Big Brain has it all figured out and sends its emissaries to protest, arm-in-arm with photo-op downtrodden and ‘poster boy’ images of evil-doings. They are false prophets and bad shepherds, based on having figured out what “Jesus wants.” Rather than utilizing the wisdom of being Jesus Christ reborn, using the “I” word instead of “Jesus says,” they become agitators – those who scatter the flock with fearful messages.
A minister of the LORD, without thought, will see how a kind act without publicity will be noticed by the one looking for signs, causing the first step of positive change. The media portrays those who think Jesus (who is in heaven) said to do what a minority of the society desires to hear priest of Baal to say. Like them, priests today stand with women who want the right to abort babies, which is no different than the practice of human sacrifices Jeremiah sought to warn the people against. Those ‘would-be gods’ today are speaking hatred in the name of Jesus, which breaks the Commandment that says, “Do not use the LORD’s name in vain.” That Law says, “Do not act like you know what Jesus wants, before you become Jesus Christ reborn.”
Therefore, the message in this reading says to become one who knows the “LORD is our righteousness.” Our righteousness does not go about pointing out the lack of righteousness in a world owned by wicked people, as the world is not the ultimate goal. Our righteousness is only possible by becoming married to God in our individual hearts, and then becoming a walking, talking reproduction of Jesus of Nazareth.
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
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This is the Gospel selection from the Episcopal Lectionary for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B 2018. In the numbering system that lists each Sunday in an ordinal fashion, this Sunday is referred to as Proper 11. It will next be read aloud in an Episcopal church by a priest on Sunday July 22, 2018. It is important because it shows the care that Jesus had for the ones of faith in God, who acted upon their beliefs with faith. This includes the disciples who had returned from their assigned ministry and those who searched for Jesus and went to him when he was seen and recognized.
It should be realized that this reading comes from two parts of Mark’s sixth chapter. These two selected sets of verses let the reader see how the first segment came after the twelve had been sent out, and then upon their return hearing the news of John’s beheading. Verse 30 relates to the twelve returning and reporting their doings and teachings of their commission. Verse 31 relates to the news of John, as Jesus’ instruction, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” was not because their travels made them weary, but because some of the disciples had been disciples of John the baptizer. They needed time to reflect on that loss. Verse 32 then adds that the activity of travel had meant the disciples needed seclusion to rest and eat, in addition to grieving without the need to do chores for the church of Jesus.
Verses 33-34 precede the feeding of 5,000. When we read, “Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them,” one can assume that some disciples went to get some food to eat, like preparing for a picnic once they reached the deserted place. The place was probably Capernaum, as that was where Jesus lived. Since the disciples were recognized, people surely asked them, “When will Jesus be around?” They probably answered with the truth, saying something akin to, “Probably tomorrow. We’re headed for some R & R in Bethsaida.”
That answer can be assumed because Luke (Mary’s story) says, “When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida,” where “the crowds learned about it and followed him.” (Luke 9:10-11) Some disciple let that be publicly known.
Because Mark wrote, “they went away in the boat,” they had to have traveled in a large fishing vessel (used primarily for commercial purposes), which would have been required for twelve disciples, Jesus and others going to fit safely on board. A large fishing vessel then requires a marina with piers and docks in which to be moored, so it would most likely have been in a ‘slip’ in Capernaum.
We are told that Jesus moved to Capernaum from Nazareth and while walking by the sea (presumably there) he called Peter and Andrew and then James and John of Zebedee to follow him. (Matthew 4:18-22 & Mark 1:16-20) While Peter, Andrew and Philip (possibly Nathaniel too) lived in Bethsaida (John 1:44), their fishing business might have been best based in Capernaum. That may be where Zebedee maintained a spot on the dock for his fishing boat.
Based on the information in Luke (the truth told), this seems to indicate Jesus and his followers went by boat from Capernaum to Bethsaida; but because the crowd there would not let them have solitude, they then set sail again and went further south, along the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The area known as the Bethsaida valley is shown in this map of Roman-era docks on Lake Tiberius, as the flood plain (in a semi-arid environment – steppe climate) at the northeastern shore of the lake. The map shows there were two docks that were in the Bethsaida valley, one at the mouth of the Jordan River and the other further to the south.
Seeing this segmented trip from Capernaum to Bethsaida and then to the somewhat marshy flood plain of Bethsaida (which the roads and aqueducts avoided) shows how the boat with Jesus would have traveled relatively close to the shore, thus be visible to those walking the road along the shoreline. Had Jesus and disciples set sail directly across the sea, the route of the boat would have made it difficult to spot from land. However, if it stayed close to shore the people who “hurried there on foot from all the towns” could have anticipated the marina the boat was headed toward and thus “arrived ahead of them.”
This makes it easier to fathom, “As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd.” The Greek word written by Mark, “synedramon,” conveys more than “[the crowd] hurried there on foot.” That word means, “They ran (rushed) together,” or “they ran with,” where the crowd of people were running down a road while looking over their right shoulders to make sure they kept up with where the boat with Jesus was. When one reads that the multitude was five thousand strong, one has to realize that was men counted only. The crowd also included women and older children. When Jesus got off the boat, on the pier in the place he was taking the disciples for solitude, he went from a being surrounded by a sea of water to being surrounded by a sea of exhausted pilgrims.
Lamb-pede.
Think about that sight, which only Simon-Peter wrote of in this manner. Mark wrote how Jesus “had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Get the picture in your mind now of sheep running when called home by their shepherd. Jesus looked out from the dock at the Bethsaida valley and figuratively saw the lost sheep of Israel lying down in the green pastures of that flood plain (albeit in the dry season) with still waters. Jesus felt compassion for this flock in search of a shepherd, because they had run, in growing numbers, from Capernaum to Bethsaida, only to have the shepherd lead them to a large open space where they could be fed – spiritually more than physically.
This is why Peter (through Mark’s Gospel) said, “[Jesus] began to teach them many things.” Jesus became the Good Shepherd. He acted as a rabbi would to his assembly, by teaching them the meaning of the scrolls. This brings up the question, “Why would so many Jews run away from their shepherd-rabbis and follow Jesus?”
The answer comes from John’s Gospel, when he wrote, “A great crowd of people followed [Jesus] because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick” (John 6:2), while adding, “The Jewish Passover Festival was near.” (John 6:4) The advent of large numbers of pilgrims in Galilee and Judea, filling all the inns and vacant rooms in Jewish homes means many Jews were left to their own observances of prayers and studies. They wanted more, but were nowhere close to home. Then, the news of this man Jesus reached out to them; and seeing the miracles he worked meant there were lots of lost sheep mixing in with established flocks, but they were not being taken care of by good shepherds. To spend time with such a marvelous rabbi was worth running to meet a boat before it landed.
In between verses selected for this Sunday’s reading are the verses that tell of Jesus feeding the multitude and then Jesus sending the disciples across the sea in the boat, while he stayed to pray in the mountains of Geshur (the eastern ridges overlooking the Sea of Galilee). Mark says Jesus stayed alone, but John (the son of Jesus – the “boy” holding the basket with five loaves of bread and two salted fish) stayed with his father. Jesus was alone only in the sense that John was a child (probably about ten then) and it was customary for adult Jewish males not to address women or children by name, much less give them credit for being an asset. Therefore, Jesus was alone because there was no adult male that stayed with him.
The verses skipped over also tell of how Jesus walked on water when the boat was difficult to oar against the wind. Jesus got into the boat when the disciples were frightened. In John’s Gospel, he wrote how” “When [the disciples] had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water.” (John 6:19) The actual Greek states “twenty five to thirty furlongs,” which converts to 3.13 and 3.75 miles. The text of John also says, “They see Jesus walking on the sea,” which is true because they were on the sea and they saw Jesus walking. The assumption is Jesus walking on the water, not the land.
Knowing John was with Jesus, this either means Jesus was walking on the water while holding young John on his shoulders, or Jesus and John were walking along the road going around the sea and saw the lanterns in the boat on the water, knowing that was the disciples. With the wind strongly against a rowed boat, the distances stated by John can mean one mile forward and a half a mile back. Still, by John saying, “[The disciples] got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum,” the straight-line distance from the Bethsaida valley dock was roughly two and a half miles. It would have been half that to Bethsaida’s dock.
Mark wrote that Jesus told them to go to Bethsaida, which was only a three or so mile walk away, with a boat traveling about two miles in an arc. So, if the disciples changed the plan and decided to go to Capernaum instead, the contrary winds that made their rowing fruitless might have been spiritually created. The wind and rough water, naturally blowing eastward, with a downward flow into the sub-sea-level bowl that was the lake’s surface (nearly 696 feet below sea level), meant if they had a sail hoisted, then the wind would have been blowing them to the shore and the marina at Bethsaida. If Jesus had told them to sail there, then it would have been where he and John would have planned to walk and meet the disciples, after Jesus was finished praying in the mountains. [Keep in mind how John was the only Gospel writer who wrote of Jesus’ prayers late in the evening of the ‘Last Supper’].
When the disciples saw Jesus coming towards them, Mark reports it was around four o’clock in the morning (the fourth night watch is between 4:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.), so it was as dark as the night would be then. Jesus probably would have walked after dark with a torch or lantern to light the road he and John were taking. Jesus would then have carried this light with him as he walked out on the pier at Bethsaida. That light surrounding him, as seen from a boat being blown close to shore, would have made it seem like a ghost. Due to the lack of perspective in pitch black night, Jesus walking on the pier would seem as though he were walking on the water, because the fear in the disciples would have disoriented them from all sense of reality.
When John wrote that as soon as Jesus reached out his hand to those in the boat and got in with them, “immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.” This would have happened had Jesus been on the dock and got into the boat as it was time to throw out the ropes to secure the boat to the dock.
This omitted story is important to review because when we read, “When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat,” this does not mean there is an immediacy of Jesus seen walking and getting in the boat and “when they had crossed over.” There can be time between “when they had crossed over,” so the disciples were able to sleep and rest, well before “they came to land at Gennesaret.” This means a day or two could have passed, prior to Jesus traveling to Gennesaret.
When we then read, “When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region,” we see that those who missed the opportunity to go to Jesus in the Bethsaida valley were equally running about like sheep who heard their shepherd’s call. Still, whereas the people who ran to meet Jesus first had sought him for teaching – spiritual feeding – the people on the western shore brought the sick to Jesus for healing. Here we read how the people “began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.”
This led Peter to tell Mark, “Wherever [Jesus] went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.” This means that Jesus did near the marina of Gennesaret as he would do many times, in other places in Galilee. Still, there is symbolism that this segregated reading selection points out, which can be missed due to the admiration all Christians have for Jesus.
Because everyone sees Jesus as the ‘miracle man’, whose feats can never be matched by other human beings, it is easy to hear Jesus teaching to a multitude before he miraculously fed them with five loaves and two fish. The tendency is to connect Jesus crossing over to Gennesaret as being after he had miraculously walked on water. By intuiting the miracles of Jesus, it is harder to see the common duality each disciple would show, as Jesus Christ reborn into Apostles.
To have this reading purposefully overlooking the miracles, the duality becomes visible. Jesus taught on the eastern plain of the Sea of Galilee; and then Jesus healed on the western plain, the one surrounding Gennesaret. In both places the people came to Jesus. This is the duality of preaching and healing, as two core talents of the Holy Spirit. While both are Spiritual, one is the body and bread, while the other is the wine and blood. The duality is a complimentary set of the completed Trinity, when body and soul are united with God. The people came to Jesus because they hungered and thirsted for those dual needs.
Jesus first fed his flock with spiritual food, which was him serving up the meaning in the Torah that no rabbi had ever before unlocked. Jesus taught as if giving the people the manna they needed for maintaining life in a barren world. Thus, Jesus raised the minds of all who heard the Word of God, to the point that physical food (five loaves of bread and two salted fish) seemed to satisfy their appetites supernaturally.
To have the disciples collect twelve baskets full of ‘leftovers’, the result of Jesus spiritually feeding the multitude meant the multitude began to speak in the tongues of understanding. Once filled with the Holy Spirit, the lost sheep gave back to Jesus and his disciples more than they had been given. By taking five loaves and two fish worth of inspiration, the presence of the Holy Spirit in new Apostles meant they had turned that spiritual food into twelve full baskets (symbolic of the Twelve Apostles) of God’s Word. The symbolism is the Word leads the faithful to Apostlehood.
Jesus then cared for his flock by mending their wounds. The people came to Jesus with their loved ones, carrying them and bringing the mats (or beds, mattresses) upon which they lay, as those sick of illnesses. It is most important to grasp how Mark wrote that the sick, “begged [Jesus] that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak.”
Jesus did not charge admission (or pass a plate for donations by cash or check), nor did he parade the sick across a stage while he made a big production of grasping the sick firmly, as if the harder he grabbed them with his hands the more the positive, healing energy within him would flow from his holy body into their unclean ones. Jesus never shouted out, “HEAL this sick person!” Jesus never presumed to be the one who would command God to act as he wished, because he acted as God commanded him.
The words of Peter, through Mark, are stating the same as Jesus told others who touched the fringe of his garment, “Your faith has healed you.” By having faith that Jesus is the Son of God – the Messiah – having the desire to “touch even the hem of his cloak” means to desire to become Jesus Christ reborn. The “touch” that faith seeks turns into far more than feeling the fringe of a shawl, as one’s faith transforms one into the human being wearing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The stories that had spread across the countryside then are the equivalent today of those written into the Gospels of the Holy Bible. The fame and glory of Jesus of Nazareth is known, so all lost sheep can run to his voice.
Simply by recognizing Jesus as the Christ (professing to be Christian), one’s belief (not true faith) can lead one to limp or be carried on a sick bed to beg Jesus for wellness (prayer). True faith comes from first coming in touch with the Holy Spirit. That personal experience then becomes the stepping stone (the cornerstone of faith) that leads to the cure of all worldly ills, through the love of God and the submission of self for others.
In the first verse read in this selection, we read of the reports of the disciples, after they had served Jesus as Apostles. We read, “The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.” This is the duality that is then shown in Jesus – he taught and he healed. The disciples had achieved in the same way as did Jesus, because they too were passed the torch of the Holy Spirit. Their brains had not filled them with knowledge of the Torah, nor had their energy flow as living human beings cause them to glow like ghosts, visible in the dark. God had become temporarily married to them (an engagement) and they submitted to His Will, speaking in His tongues and doing as He commanded them. When one has God in one’s heart, then one is able to teach the Word and be healed of all sins.
This element of sin is how the Jews perceived sickness. This is why the disciples asked Jesus, relative to the blind man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) The commonly held belief was that sins were reflected openly as illness and disease. The cure, as shown in the story of Job, was faith. The problem (then, as now) was no one could teach anything beyond belief, as faith demands a personal relationship with God. When Jesus answered his disciples by saying, “Neither this man or his parents sinned, but this happened so the works of God might be displayed in him,” the meaning says that the “works of God” are the result of faith. To be healed of sins one must become Jesus Christ, thus know faith.
As the Gospel choice for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s personal ministry to the LORD should be underway, the lesson is to teach and heal in the name of Jesus Christ (being reborn as Christ). So many feel the message is to prove one’s faith by spreading the “good news” of Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah, which can only be done by evangelizing all around the globe. Going to tell a poor man in India or a sick man in Africa that Jesus Christ means salvation, while one is carrying food and medicine in a backpack, will get all kinds of compliance to religious dogma. Getting more people to say they “believe in Jesus” is not the message here.
A minister of the LORD realizes that the people seeking God’s love, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge of the Christ Mind will come to meet a minister, like lost sheep seeking the care of a good shepherd. Most frequently, those are family, friends and neighbors, where one has a heartfelt relationship established. When they come to one, one feels compassion and acts to spiritually feed the faith in God those loved ones want and need.
The message of duality says that ministry calls for times of solitude and times of contact with others. When on the eastern shores of one’s life, one prays for those seeking to find God and Christ. As an Apostle that has been reborn as Jesus Christ, one is sent by God into public arenas so one’s presence (looking nothing like the pictures of Jesus of Nazareth) offers the fringe of the Savior’s cloak. This presence does not mean putting any demands on anyone or setting standards that others must meet. In both ways, a minister to the LORD lives inwardly and outwardly as a reflection of God’s love.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”
So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
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This is the Track 1 Old Testament option for reading on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary of the Episcopal Church. If chosen, this will be accompanied by a singing of Psalm 14, which says, “The fool has said in his heart, “[There are] no elohim.” All are corrupt and commit abominable acts; there is none who does any good.” That pair will be read before the Epistle reading from Ephesians, where Paul wrote, “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.” All will precede the Gospel reading from John, where his accounts of the feeding of five thousand and Jesus walking on water took place.
I wrote about this and published my views in 2018. That commentary can be found by searching this site. I welcome all to read what I wrote then, as it still applies today. However, now I want to explore a different angle on this reading selection.
While reading this selection again, I was taken to a higher view of the sum of David’s reign, such that he had successfully ruled over the Israelite people as their king for thirty years. In those thirty years, he would have been King of Judah that entire time; but he would have been the King of Israel [and Judah] for twenty-two [and a half] years. These numbers make David become a reflection of Saul, who became king at age thirty, ruling for forty years. It says Saul probably was a king led by Yahweh (through Samuel) for ten years, before he acted against the will of God, then ruling corruptly for thirty years – an inverse of David’s reign.
From this perspective, David – as the foremost King of Israel in its history of kings – has to be seen as equally flawed as a replacement to Yahweh as the King of the Israelite people, thus bound to eventually fail. While all the kings of Israel and Judah would have some degree of devotion to Yahweh, as a version of David, all would equally have some degree of rebellion against Yahweh, as a version of Saul. Just as David wrote the Song of the Bow, where a “bow” reflects the trajectory of what goes up must then come down, the same fate of David is told in this story of his failure: How the mighty have fallen.
This means the literal story transforms into a metaphoric story, where the names of the characters brings forth hidden meaning that needs to be realized to see the depth of truth come forth. Here is a list of the personified words taken simply as names and identifications, without thought placed on the meaning behind the names [from Abarim Publications]:
David – Beloved
Joab – Yah Is Father, Whose Father Is Yah
Israel – He Retains God
Ammonites – A People, Kinsmen
Rabbah – Great
Jerusalem – In Awe Of Peace, Teaching Peace
Bathsheba – Daughter Of Seven, Daughter Of An Oath
Eliam – God Of The People, God Of Kinsmen
Uriah – Yah Of Light, Light Of Yah
Hittite – Terrors, Terrible
By knowing the meaning behind the names, verse one can be stated as: “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, Beloved sent Whose Father Is Yah with his officers and all He Retains God with him; they ravaged the Kinsmen, and besieged Great. But Beloved remained at Teaching Peace. From this, I see it is easier to see that David, as a soul married to Yahweh [Beloved, Whose Father Is Yahweh] gave up on being a king. When “kings go out to battle,” David let Yahweh be the king overseeing “his officers.” As those who retained Yahweh [Israelites], they did battle with all their relatives who resisted marrying their souls to the One God, which meant besieging the physical property they worshiped as “Great.” As that was an ongoing and yearly rite for human beings and their worldly leaders, Beloved remained In Awe Of Peace, which is an inner placement of the Ark, where the Covenant is written on the walls of one’s soul. Thus, David came to the end of the line as a King over Israel and Judah, simply because his soul saw setting a human example of a holy ruler did the Israelites no good, in the long term.
With this abdication of rule seen as done because David felt in his heart and soul his role as king was over, he arose one morning and went out onto his rooftop, symbolizing he had reached the pinnacle of his life. From this position David was high above the ordinary scope held by the common people, meaning he was looking down as one with absolute authority, as a royal, in the same condescending way Michal had watched him dance and celebrate publicly as the Ark entered the city. He was aloof and saw the nakedness of a young woman who was ritually cleansing herself in the public bathhouse. At the age of sixty, David was not seeing nakedness as an experienced husband, with several wives and children born. He was seeing nakedness as did Adam and Eve see themselves as sexually appetizing, after they had opened their eyes to that which was good and bad. For the first time, David saw a young naked woman with lust in his heart; and, that newfound lust was made possible because he had surrendered his responsibility to lead the troops out in the spring.
Verse three can then be shown to say, “Beloved sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Daughter Of An Oath daughter of God Of Kinsman, the wife of Yah Of Light the Terrible.” In this verse, the Hebrew word “baṯ-“ is repeated, which means “daughter.” Here, it becomes vital to grasp that all human beings [regardless of gender] are feminine essence, with a neuter soul animating it. This means all human beings the live are “daughters” of Yahweh; and, as “daughters” they are all proposed to by Yahweh, where a divine marriage proposal accepted makes all “daughters” become bridesmaids [human males and females alike]. That divine marriage would then demand acceptance to the Covenant with Yahweh as the wedding vows – an “oath.” This means David saw Bathsheba as the “idea” of a marriage vow [a daughter of an oath], which was also an “idea” David having become a “god of kinsmen,” who were all Israelites – and Bathsheba was an Israelite. Bathsheba then became a “woman” who was married in soul to Yahweh, through the “light” of David’s rule [being filled with Yahweh’s Spirit], but she represented a “terrible” place for David to go with his lusts, as to see her as a potential sexual partner meant breaking his vow against adultery.
When the Israelite elders went to Samuel and demanded they have a king, in order to be like other nations, Yahweh had Samuel make it perfectly clear to those elders what having a human king would mean. In a nutshell, it meant surrendering everything they held dear to the will of that ruler. Without specifically stating so, the king would be able to take any woman he wanted and keep her as his plaything. Similarly, Saul took David to keep from Jesse, although not for sexual purposes. This means David, like Saul, had the right as king to take whatever he wanted as his own. However, because David’s soul was married to Yahweh and his having sex with Bathsheba struck a loud chord within him, as breaking his vows of marriage, David reacted with guilt, in the same way Adam and Eve knew they had sinned, trying to hide their sin from Yahweh their Father.
When David began to consult Joab and have him bring Uriah to him, that was when David began to act like a repeat of Saul. Uriah, whose name means “Yah Of Light,” becomes a reflection of young David. Thus, it is possible to read verse six as saying, “So Beloved sent word to Yah Is Father, “Send me Yah Of Light the Terrible.” That acts as a prayer from David’s soul, asking Yahweh to show him how his younger self would counter such an act that broke the Covenant with Yahweh.
When David plotted to give Uriah liberty from the siege of Rabbah, suggesting that he take this valuable time back home to go lay with his wife, Uriah will not leave the palace of David. We then read Uriah telling David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.”
That must be seen as the Light of Yah exposing to David the truth of commitment. The ark in its tent was the marriage David officiated by bringing it into his city where the purpose was Teaching Peace. The young men of Israel [those who retained God] and the young men of Judah [those who praised God] were likewise under tents of commitment to Yahweh, because David was their king. Joab [meaning a son of God] was also committed to serve Yahweh, as commanded by David. Thus, the light of truth requested by David, in prayer to Yahweh, was answered by Uriah saying, “as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” A “soul living” means one granted eternal life through marriage to Yahweh. Therefore, Uriah [as the reflection of young David and how he would react to the offer to take time off from your responsibilities and duties in service to Yahweh and go have sex with a woman] said, “A soul married to Yahweh will not break the marriage vows.”
In the same way that Saul heard from Samuel that he was no longer supported by Yahweh, with that being news Saul refused to hear, David reacted in the same way as had Saul. Rather than admit his sin to Uriah, David compounded his one sin by lying and then when Uriah would not go along with the lie David plotted for Uriah to be killed in battle. David was successful in killing himself, whereas all the efforts of Saul to kill him had failed. When Uriah would be murdered, as the final sin of David, David sealed his abdication as the king of Israel, because that sin marked all who would forevermore lead Israel and Judah as from the House of Cain, who would kill a brother rather than live forever in peace.
In this new insight I have been shown in this reading, I have also come to realize that a Hittite was who sold Abraham the property on which the cave [Machpelah] used as a tomb for Sarah. They were said to be allies of Abraham and scholars say they rose to be a very strong kingdom, which had collapsed by the time David became king. This connection to Abraham has the Hittites be linked to the Jebusites, who were allies of Israel: the Hittites supplied the material needs of the Israelite people [above ground]; the Jebusites supplied the spiritual needs of them [underground]. Thus, to name Uriah as a Hittite says he was an ally to David’s material needs.
Still, to state that Bathsheba was the “daughter or Eliam,” whose name means “el of the kinsman,” says she was a woman [“wife” equals “female, woman, wife”] that reflected the marriage of two peoples of elohim. This would mean Bathsheba and Uriah became two halves of one whole that brough the Hittites and the Jebusites together. Neither would be significant outside of Jerusalem, as both would only find prominence in that holy city taken by David as his capital. When the two are seen as one overall divine entity, with two faces, the pair become a trap set for David before he was anointed by Yahweh and made King of Israel and Judah.
The aspect of the Israelites going out to ravage the Ammonites, the history of the Ammonites is they were the descendants of Lot, through a son born to one of his daughters incestuously. As descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, they were the “Kinsmen” of the “Israelites,” with their city of refuge being “Rabbah,” which means “Great.” Yahweh had given instructions for the Israelites not to disturb the Ammonites, but the tribes of Gad and Reuben took their land, with Rabbah remaining their stronghold there. This place is known today as Amman, Jordan. For the troops of David to go into battle against their own relatives, while David stayed at home and had a symbolic incestuous relationship with Bathsheba [so she “sent and told David, “I’m pregnant.”‘], says the refusal of Uriah to cover up David’s sin reflected how Uriah was not a descendant of Lot – a name meaning “Covering.”
In verse fourteen is written, “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah,” which can be adjusted to state: “In the morning Beloved wrote a letter to Yah Is Father, and sent it by the hand of Light Of Yah.” This speaks of David’s soul taking the Covenant between his soul and Yahweh and placing it in the “hand” of Yahweh that David had been in his youth. We read about how David had Uriah murdered because the “letter” has been placed in the “hand of the light of truth” that is Second Samuel. Just as David arose from sleep, before he committed adultery, he arose from sleep and wrote a letter that would make him responsible for murder.
Because Jesus is seen as (and said to be) a branch of David, the same should be seen in Uriah. Uriah has been deemed a sacrificial lamb by a ruler of Jerusalem, whose innocent blood being spilled is all over his human hands. David now reflects the future of Jerusalem, where its leaders well into the future will routinely sacrifice the innocent for their own power and privilege. Uriah is therefore a model of Jesus, as both held in their hands a death sentence, which they both were divinely aware of and both bravely went forward to their deaths.
In this way, the passing of a letter to the prototype of his younger self and the Jesus still to come should be seen as the passing of the baton of the true kingship that comes from marriage of a soul to Yahweh from a human king of Israel and Judah to one who stood on a much higher realm as a soul totally committed to divine marriage, to the point of self-sacrifice for a higher cause.
The reading about the fall of King David must be seen as known by Yahweh to come, knowing it was inevitable and necessary, just as was the plague allowed to be set unjustly on Job and just as was the unjust killing of Jesus. When David was anointed, we read: “and came the Spirit of Yahweh upon David from that day and forward” [literal translation of 1 Samuel 16:13b], it was known that David would eventually sin. He had to sin to prove the failure of human kings will always occur. In this light, one must see how Adam and Eve were set up to fail, because without them knowing sin and the guilt that comes from having turned away from Yahweh, there could be no concept of true repentance and Yahweh’s forgiveness. Therefore, David was not eternally punished for his sins, as he was unaware that Yahweh knew what he would do, the same as Adam and Eve were that naive. David’s fall then becomes a lesson for all who would climb the mountain of power that comes from sacrifice to be an obedient servant, as when the eyes open and the power of Yahweh is seen at one’s command, then watch how fast it will all fall in upon oneself.
A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man ha-elohim: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says Yahweh, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of Yahweh.
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This is the optional Track two Old Testament reading for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. If chosen, it will be paired with verses sung from Psalm 145, where some lyrics sing: “The eyes of all wait upon you and you give them their food in due season.” Those would precede the Epistle reading from Ephesians, where Paul wrote: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” All will accompany the Gospel reading from John, where Jesus fed the multitude and walked on the sea.
I wrote a commentary about this reading and published it in 2018. Everything I wrote then is still applicable for understanding this reading. I welcome all to read that article by searching this site. As always, I welcome comments, questions and suggestions. I will only add a little now, as this reading is short and sweet, fairly easy to understand when seen as a possible Old Testament reading to accompany the Gospel reading from John, when five thousand men were fed from five loaves and two fish.
In the reading from Second Kings, it is important to realize that a famine had spread across the Northern Kingdom. Most likely, the famine was caused by drought. According to rabbinical scholars, all famines were considered to be the result of the sinful ways of the people, meaning the people were led by sinful kings and priests. This must then be seen as not only a time when rainfall was not allowing for plentiful plant growth, but also a time when spiritual drought meant the people were not led properly. As a result of bad shepherding, the flock was not led to green pastures, where they could be fed the manna that poured down from heaven.
In the designation that says, “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man ha-elohim,” it must be seen that two men as the focal points. I have adjusted the NRSV translation that says “man of God” to the truth written, as “man ha-elohim” is a statement of a soul married to Yahweh, so a “man Saint” identifies Elisha as that “man.” The assumed ‘place’ named “Baal-shalishah” is only found in the Bible in this verse. That rarity then says this is not a place, but “a man from the lord of three,” as “baal” means “lord, master,” and “shalosh” pertains to the number “three.” Therefore, the “man” who “came” was sent by Yahweh [the “lord”] as a Trinity, meaning he had become possessed by the Spirit and divinely led to do what he did. In this way, Elisha had prayed to Yahweh for a sign from God that would become spiritual food for his prophets that were hidden in two caves.
Because the man brought a sack that contained the first fruits, he was a priest of the temple in Bethel. During a famine, the growers of fruits and grains were still obligated to take omers [dry measure, like a bushel] of their crops to the temple, prior to the Passover. After fifty days [what the Greeks call Pentecost], on Shavuot, the high priest would bless the first fruits and a feast would be held that day. Because this man was possessed by Yahweh, he was able to access this bounty of ripe grains and fruits and take enough barley grain for twenty loaves of bread, after which he was led to where Elisha had gathered with his prophets.
Because the food had been deemed ready for consumption amid times of famine, the arrival of a Yahweh-sent bearer of grain should be seen as the answer to Elisha’s prayer having arrived. He immediately told the divinely possessed man to “Give it to the people and let them eat.” This is where the specific number of “a hundred” must be seen as the prophet hid in two caves. The two caves should then be seen as reflecting how the Northern Kingdom not only had a temple in Bethel, but also one at Dan, designed that way to keep the Israelites from thinking they needed to go to Jerusalem for the three yearly festivals. Thus, the “hundred people” were the prophets of Yahweh who served both temples of Israel, as they were the ones in need of manna from Yahweh to maintain their faith.
In what Elisha said to the divinely possessed man who Yahweh used to bring His food, twice he said “Yahweh.” I have changed the NRSV translations of “the Lord” to reflect Elisha was in direct communication with Yahweh, not some generic “lord.” When the word “baal” is realized to translate as “lord,” with many people accepting “baal” worship, due to the false kings and foreign queens, who brought in their pagan priests to corrupt the Israelites, it is vital to see Elisha referred specifically to “Yahweh.”
When it was Yahweh who told Elisha, “They shall eat and have some left,” and “they had some left,” this speaks of how spiritual food is unlike physical food. Whereas physical food would not have fed a hundred people, the divine messenger brought spiritual food that was more than a hundred people could consume at once. When we read “they had some left,” their souls had been nourished, with more nourishment left over to nourish not only them, but others who were in need, due to spiritual famine. The “some left” was those prophets being given the ability to go out and lead others to marry their souls to Yahweh and feed off spiritual food because they had fed off that.
As an optional reading during the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry to Yahweh should already be well underway, this short reading speaks of one being fed spiritual food. For spiritual food to have an effect, one’s soul must be married to Yahweh. To be a minister of Yahweh, one needs to be a “man from baal- shalishah,” such that one has been led by Yahweh to take spiritual food to the people starving from spiritual famine and feed them. Just as that divinely possessed man knew nothing about how many could be fed on just a little spiritual food, this becomes a reflection on how little a true priest of Yahweh needs to know, in order to feed the flocks and keep their souls healthy and nourished. All a true priest needs to do is show up with a sack of Scripture [the lectionary lessons that can feed a multitude if presented divinely] and let Yahweh do the rest. That requires the faith of the Trinity; and, unfortunately, the spiritual famine now covering the lands of Christianity means there are few Saints carrying the spiritual message to the people.
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen
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This is the Epistle selection for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. This will be read following either a Track 1 or Track 2 pairing, which either David’s fall because lust, lies, and murder or Elisha receiving first fruits that fed a hundred men, with some left over. The songs sing of fools and of those who have faith. All will precede the Gospel reading from John, which tells of Jesus feeding the multitude and then walking on the sea.
Being there is different than praying to be there.
In this translation a segment of words that is enclosed in angle brackets or chevrons [< >] has been omitted. That act of omission has been done as if those separating marks were written by Paul to denote optional reading material. The marked segment follows “Father,” in verse fourteen. The words within the brackets add “<of whom lord of us of Jesus of Christ> ,” which is a statement that Paul’s [and all the true Christians of Ephesus] bowing before the “Father” was as the Son, in whose name his soul had been reborn. To ignore this statement, where the angle brackets show Paul’s “knees bowed” from the inner presence [the angle brackets indicating this] that was his Anointment as Jesus, is remiss.
According to the Wikipedia article entitled “Bracket,” under the heading “Angle Brackets,” this is written: “Chevrons are infrequently used to denote words that are thought instead of spoken.” To assume that meaning was the intent of Paul in this letter to the true Christians of Ephesus makes this become an indication that Paul was not alone in his thinking. By being led to write a letter, while divinely inspired through his soul married to Yahweh, such a ‘thought’ becomes a statement of the duality of his divine possession. By beginning the first segment with the first person word “kamptō,” as “I bend,” the following that is set within marks of ‘thought’ are adding that Paul, as well as all the true Christians of Ephesus [as “us”], all share the name Jesus [ the genitive form “of Jesus”], whose soul is joined with all theirs. As such, “I bend” is a statement of “we bend,” two together as one [the same in multiple bodies]. To remove this necessary segment of words removes all ‘thought’ of the reality that is true Christianity, as all must be reborn as Jesus; all must be Anointed ones of Yahweh, so as the Son they can truly call Yahweh the “Father.”
When the NRSV then translates the following [verse fifteen] as, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,” the exclusion of the name “Jesus” makes a reader-listener think this is the “name” of “the Father.” When Episcopalians [and other readers of English translations] are too afraid to even say the name “Yahweh,” it makes one wonder what name that is [especially when they fail to realize the meaning of the name “Jesus”]. To compound this confusion more is the fact that the NRSV does not divide verse fifteen into the two segments of words it was written in. Seeing that makes what Paul wrote be more understandable.
The literal translation of what Paul wrote is this: “from out of which every ancestor in heaven kai upon earth is given a name.” In that, the presence of the word “kai” must be seen as a marker word noting importance that follows that marker. The use of “kai“divides the verse into two focuses: one on heaven and the other on earth. When the used of “heaven” [“ouranois”] and “earth [“gēs”] are realized as the spiritual [soul-self] and the physical [body-self], this is then explaining that written within angle brackets [chevrons].
The last word in the statement of ‘thought’ is “of christ,” where “christou” is the genitive case, stating a condition of possession; and, it is not capitalized. It is then this “christ” state of being that comes “from out of heaven,” making all in this spiritual state of possession be related to Yahweh through marriage. The “christ from out of the spiritual” is a soul that has received the Spirit of Yahweh. That means a divine marriage, where the “name of the Father” means one’s soul has married into His “family.” That “family” or “lineage” or “ancestry” is not of human blood, but of “heavenly” marriage. The placement of “kai” then says it is important to see this familial relationship taking place within one’s flesh [that of the “earth”], being “given the name” stated prior: Jesus. The name “Jesus” means “Yah[weh] Will Save” or “Yah[weh] Saves.”
Because there is no comma mark used to break this “heaven and earth” into two separate statements, the lack of such punctuation then states the reality that is human life. All humans are “heaven and earth,” as a soul within a body of flesh. The important marker – kai – is then making the important statement that Paul and the true Christians of Ephesus were not normal souls in bodies of flesh. They were all divinely transformed, as “of whom lord of us Jesus of Christ,” which made them all family under the same name.
The name they were known by was “Jesus,” as that was the name of “the Christ” sent by Yahweh to be “on earth.” By having married Yahweh Spiritually, their souls had all become related in “heavenly” terms, as the “christs” of Yahweh, all reborn as Jesus in their bodies of flesh. Thus, the “name” that has been created through that rebirth is “Jesus Christ,” which is the foundation “name” of the movement known as “Christianity.” All true Christians are then only those whose souls have married Yahweh, so all members are related as a “christ of Yahweh.”
I wrote about this reading in 2018; and, at that time I did not delve into this omitted segment of words. That commentary can be read by searching this site. I welcome all visitors to read that, as the same meaning I saw then still applies today. However, because of this newfound insight coming from omitted text, I will readdress this reading now.
In verse sixteen, the NRSV has translated, “I pray that.” In reality, there is nothing in all of this third chapter of Paul’s letter that says “I pray.” The words “prayer” and “pray” are totally nonexistent here. The BibleHub Interlinear places a header before these verses which says “Paul’s Prayer for the Ephesians.” That is the only place the word “pray” comes up as a search term. This whole assumption comes from when Paul begins by writing, “kamptō ta gonata,” which says, “I bend these knees,” and it ends when he wrote “Amen.” While that leads one to see a prayer is here, it is not a prayer for the Ephesians, as it was a statement of truths about them.
Episcopalians [and others] have built-in kneelers on the backs of their pews, for routine kneeling. There the physical knees are bent, multiple times over an hour-long service. The true meaning of Paul “bending his knees to the Father” is he submitted his soul to Yahweh in marriage. The act of bowing is an act of submission to a higher power; so, one bends physical knees when one comes into the presence of a royal figure [Queen Elizabeth, for instance]. Paul was not speaking in physical terms; and, the angle brackets around the ‘thought’ that says “we all did,” when all made Jesus their lord, says all true Christians likewise “bend their knees” spiritually in submission to Yahweh. This submission is for the purpose of marrying their souls to His Spirit. Thus, to read Paul uttering a prayer on paper makes his words be less the truth of Yahweh being expressed and makes it come off like all the prayers Episcopalians offer on kneelers [much ado about little of value].
Because verse sixteen does not begin with the words “I pray that,” it becomes valuable to know what was actually written. The literal English translation according to the BibleHub Interlinear is this: “in order that he might give yourselves according to this wealth of this honor of soul , power , to be strengthened on account of this Spirit of soul into this within a human.” Instead of thinking Paul was asking for the moon, as the NRSV projects [through “I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit”], the reality is Paul was stating what being in the “name” of “Jesus Christ” entailed.
A “self” seen as a “soul” says Paul knew [as did the true Christians of Ephesus] that oneself had become divinely empowered by the addition of a “soul” [“autou” means “of self,” thus “of soul”]. This is where all is relative to the presence of the “Spirit” [capitalized, therefore that of Yahweh, only possible through divine marriage with one’s “soul”]. All of that presence is “within human” flesh, where the “soul” resides. For true Christians, Paul made a statement of fact, not a ‘wish upon a star prayer.’
When the NRSV then translates verse seventeen as saying, “and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love,” the better translation is stated differently. Literally, this says, “may dwell this Christ on account of this faith in those hearts of yourselves , in love being established , being firmly established.”
In this, the word translating as “hearts” [“kardiais”] must be known to figuratively mean “mind, character, inner self, will, intention, center.” (Strong’s Usage) This becomes a statement of the “soul center,” which is where true “love” is much more than touchy-feely physical emotions. Again, “yourselves” [from “hymōn”] becomes a statement of the “souls” of the Ephesians. The element of ‘wishful thinking’ – from “may dwell” being a wish – that wish is realized through “faith,” which is greater than “belief.” It is greater because of “love being established” within one’s soul, which is the acceptance of Yahweh’s proposal for marriage. Once joined in Holy Matrimony, that “love” bond is made ever stronger by “being firmly established,” where the presence of Yahweh [His “being”] has become one with one’s soul.
Because the NRSV has become the author of this letter, by creating another nonexistent use of “I pray,” their translation of verse eighteen says, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth.” Here, again, brings a need to look at the truth of what was written.
The literal English translates as this: “in order that you may have strength enough comprehend together with all those sacred who this breadth kai length kai height kai depth.” This is then adding to the ‘wish’ that comes from having “faith,” which leads to divine possession by Yahweh’s Spirit. This is such that the “power” and “strength” that overcomes one’s flesh is an ability to understand everything written by others who were likewise “sacred” and “holy.” When “sacred ones” [from “hagiois”] must be seen both as texts, as well as the authors of “sacred” books, but also to everyone who is truly a Christian [“Saints”]. This scope of understanding of who the “sacred ones” are is then paul stating who possessed an ability to discern the meaning of all Scripture. Sacred texts are written by sacred authors; so, sacred texts are not simply read two-dimensionally, but from a three-dimensional perspective, where the third diminsion demands a sacred reader. Paul then wrote this knowing there with the “sacred ones” who would read his words and understand their meaning. They survive as “sacred ones” for all readers thereafter to discern, because Yahweh was indeed with them all and expects the same marriages today, for understanding to still come. Again, this is not a prayer, but a statement of reality that should be expected by all Saints in the name of Jesus Christ.
That presence makes one’s soul be likewise a “Christ,” as marriage of one’s soul to Yahweh brings about His “Anointment” [the meaning of “Christ”]. This is in the same way that David had more than oil from Samuel’s horn poured onto his physical head. Having the “Spirit” of Yahweh poured into one’s soul makes one divinely “Anointed” [the meaning of the capitalization of the word]. As such, when verse nineteen then repeats this “Christ” state of being, it only implies one’s soul has been raised by the resurrection of Jesus’ soul along with one’s own soul.” It is that resurrection within one’s soul-flesh being that makes Jesus becomes one’s lord [“kyriou,” a statement of possession]. As such, the NRSV translation that says, “and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” needs closer inspection to understand.
The literal English translation of verse nineteen says, “to know both this transcending this wisdom benevolence this of Christ , in order that you may be complete towards all this fullness that of God.” Here, there is no “and” written that would indicate some new line of thought being added. The word “to know” [“gnōnai”] is directly explaining that which was written prior: “comprehending the sacred [texts] breadth and length and height and depth.” That full-scope of understanding means “both” [from “te”] means a statement of one’s soul being one with the soul of the writer of Scripture [“both” author and text]. In that way, understanding is on “both” ends of communication, where the common bond is Yahweh’s Spirit. That makes one’s ability for “transcending wisdom” be only through the “benevolence” of Yahweh, which is only bestowed upon His “Christs.” This completeness says one’s soul has been elevated to a Christ Mind state of full awareness, which is then the purpose of all saints and their sacred writings. Sacred texts are purposefully written to pass on divine “knowledge” for the “benefit” of others in the future, with the caveat being one needs sacred assistance discerning the truth. It is this way to ensure that lost souls can always find “God.”
Verse twenty is then translated by the NRSV as saying, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” This gives an impression of a power having been received; although, this is still glimpsed as a prayer, not a true state of being already in hand. When the NRSV capitalizes “Now,” this misses the truth of Paul capitalizing “Tō,” which must be read as the conjunction that says, “Thereupon.” Here, the capitalization reflects back on “you may be complete with the fullness of God,” such that the divine elevation of “Thereupon” is a statement that says “God” [Yahweh] is indeed with one’s soul, in one’s flesh. This is not a statement of wishful thinking, as it is a loud statement that this presence of God is with one.
This makes the following words express that the presence of God “now” makes one capable [“being able” or “having the power,” from “dynamenō”], from “above,” which is “beyond” anything possible by normal human beings. Here, Paul wrote this was “what we ask or think,” which is how Jesus told his disciples prayer was known by Yahweh before you can formulate the words. This is then explained as from a greater presence than a human brain can conceive, as it is not an individual soul or its fleshy parts making things happen. Instead, it is a “power working in” those who have married their souls to Yahweh.
When verse twenty-one is then shown to state, “to him be glory in the church,” the word “ekklēsia” [“church”] must be understood to only mean the souls who gather in the name of Jesus, as all are Christs [thus the truth of Christianity]. The Greek usage of “ekklēsia” never has anything whatsoever to do with a building of wood and stone, or even the organization that employs human beings to maintain such a building. There can only be “glory” [from “doxa” meaning, “an especially divine quality, the unspoken manifestation of God, splendor”] placed on a soul, never on anything physical or material.
This is then why Paul wrote another “kai,” in order to mark the importance of knowing that a “church” is and can only be where one is “in Christ Jesus into all those generations of the age of ages.” That says those who are truly identifiable as “Jesus,” because their souls have been likewise “Anointed” by Yahweh, will always be the truth of Christianity: a human “church generated” as the one and only path to salvation. When Paul then ended with the word “amēn,” this is less a statement ending a prayer and more a statement that says, “this is the truth.”
As an Epistle reading for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should be well underway, Paul is writing to all who want to become like him and the true Christians of Ephesus, because ministry can only be carried out by Saints. This part of Paul’s letter was read as the truth being told, understood by those who knew that truth from personal experience. Paul was not praying the Ephesians would become Saints, as much as he was stating what they knew as the steps that others must take to become like them all. Thus, this becomes a prayer for all who read it today. For that to be fully understood by seekers today, it demands one who has experienced this truth to show them all of this truth has been done, is being done, and can always be done in the future. The key element is “faith,” which takes belief to the level of personal experience.
Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
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This is the Gospel reading selection to be read aloud by a priest on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will accompany one of the two Tracks that pair Old Testament readings with Psalms, the first of which being the sins of David bringing about his fall. The other is from Second Kings, which tells of first fruits miraculously feeding a hundred of the prophets of Elisha. Both Psalms fit those two themes generally. Before this reading, a selection from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians will be read, where Paul said, “you may have the power to comprehend.”
I have published a commentary about this reading selection, written back in 2018. It has maps and diagrams and pictures that help explain the logistics involved. I invite all to read that posting, as the insight I offered then is still valid now. The article can be accessed by searching this site. At this time, I will only offer a few additional observations.
First of all, the specific numbers presented highlight the numbers “five” [“pente”] and “two” [“dyo”], both of which are multiplied as “five thousand” [“pentakischilioi”] and “Two hundred” [“Diakosiōn”], as a hundred fold and a thousand fold. “Six months’ wages” is actually “Two hundred denarii,” with “Diakosiōn” [“two hundred”] capitalized.
Five is representative of the Torah. It must be realized that the “synagogue” Jesus had created by the “Sea of Tiberias” was specifically chosen because it could seat many more people than could a building made of mud and stone. This means the “crowd” that numbered “five thousand” had come from the four corners of the world because of their belief in the Torah. The primary offering – spiritual food for soul thought, their manna from heaven – came from the scrolls of the “five” books of Moses.
The use of the number “two,” as always, represents a duality. As a duality of the Scriptural readings in Jewish synagogues, the prophets must be seen as those who were divinely possessed by Yahweh, so no longer was one soul maintaining a body of flesh, but the soul was joined with the Spirit of Yahweh, such that “two” was their identity. With “two” reflecting a soul possessed, the “two” fish reflected Jesus and his newly ordained apostles, having just returned from their internships [in pairs], as those who would administer this spiritual feeding that took place. The use of “Two hundred denarii,” where “Two hundred” is capitalized, shows a divine level of meaning placed on that number, denoting the value set on the souls of those waiting to be fed was beyond calculation in material terms.
When Jesus asked the question, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” this must be seen as him seeing a parallel of that setting by the sea and Moses having led the Israelite multitude into the wilderness. Neither place was conducive to marketplaces being nearby. John knew Jesus asked that question as a “test” of Philip’s soul, as a Jew who was raised to know the complaints of the Israelites for food [and water]. This says Philip failed the test of his soul having married Yahweh, because he did not answer as did Ezekiel, saying, “You know, Yahweh will provide.” This makes the question Jesus asked, which John implied he knew what Jesus was thinking [perhaps from his adult soul looking back with all the answers], be a test of how so many will be fed, when the only answer can be, “God will provide.”
When we find Jesus giving the instruction: “Make the people sit down” [NRSV], the Greek text actually says “Poiēsate tous anthrōpous anapesein,” where two aspects here need to be realized. First, the word “Poiēsate” is capitalized, which makes “you make,” or “you accomplish” be raised to a divine level of meaning, where the second person plural form of “make” or “accomplish” becomes an instruction from Yahweh [through Jesus’ mouth] that told the apostles to “shepherd His flock.” The second aspect has to do with the word “anapesein” meaning “recline,” rather than “sit.” This not only plays into earlier information stated, “Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near,” where “reclining” before eating was symbolic of royalty; and, during the Passover Seder meals [there are two each year], the Jews recline as a symbolic act of being royalty as Yahweh’s chosen children. This instruction to “Make those people recline” is then an inference to the apostles symbolically representing the ritual Seder meal that would be served to them. Still, there is another aspect relative to “reclining.”
The third element of Scripture routinely found in a Jewish synagogue is the singing of Psalms. Because the instruction must be seen as given to the apostles to become shepherds of a flock, the preceding verse has John giving the information [that seems benign and unimportant] that says, “Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they [reclined], about five thousand in all.” [NRSV] The element of “grass” then makes this a reenactment of Psalm 23:2, which sings, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.” By having stated the grass was beside the Sea of Tiberius, that instruction must be seen as the act of Yahweh as the Good Shepherd leading His flock, just as David had been led.
The element of “giving thanks” is for Yahweh having provided the Torah and the Prophets for the ‘open air’ synagogue he had been led to create, as a place where the Ark of the Covenant was free to rise as a pillar of cloud before the multitude. When John wrote, “he distributed to those reclining,” the third person singular says the soul of Jesus led each of his twelve apostles as they fed the flocks with the spiritual food that was the Torah and the Prophets, all while their imaginations saw those lessons taught to them were the consumption of physical bread and fish. This then leads to the leftovers that were gathered.
The number “twelve” needs to be seen as the number of tribes of Israelites. When Moses told the elders [those leading the twelve tribes] to instruct the people how to gather manna, they were told not to take more than their families could consume in one day. The exception was gathering two days’ worth on Friday, before the rest of the Sabbath. Excess would turn to mush filled with maggots. Thus, more manna fell than was needed, so the twelve baskets of leftovers says there was always more spiritual food than any of the tribes could handle in one day. This gathering of twelve full baskets of leftovers says there will always be more than anyone’s soul can digest in one day, with plenty left over to look forward to. That is a statement about the greatness of Yahweh’s Word.
In verse fifteen there is the idea that implies the crowd was about to “seize [Jesus] to make him king.” This must be read as Jesus knowing the souls of the people had just been fed spiritual food, more than they could eat in one sitting. They ate their fill for one day. That statement says Jesus knew they would all become Christians in due time. Verse fourteen leads to this, literally translating to say, “These therefore people [chosen] , having perceived what he had caused [within their souls] , miracle [fed them spiritually] , were saying because , This one being [soul] truly this prophet who is coming into the world.” That needs to be slowly broken down to understand the deeper meaning.
First, the Greek word “Hoi” begins this, which divinely elevates “These” to mean the group just fed were “Those” of Yahweh, as His chosen people. As pilgrims from out of town, having traveled to Galilee in preparation for the Passover, they were devout Israelites, who were seeking to repent for their wayward ways and become truly the people of God. In the feeding, they realized what had just happened, because their souls had been enlightened. They had been caused to be filled, both physically and spiritually. This was known by them to be a miracle. It was that miracle they realized that caused them to say, “This one” was Jesus foretold. The capitalization of “Houtos” divinely elevated “This one” to be the promised Messiah. The element of “truly this prophet” means the acts performed by the twelve apostles, as instructed by Jesus, was all the inspiration of Yahweh. Therefore, those fed spiritual food knew Jesus was the one that the Israelite peoples had long been awaiting.
By them realizing Jesus had touched them all through the extensions that were his apostles, the crowd was not going to run and grab Jesus and attempt to make him a king. The word that translates as “to seize” [“harpazein”] should be seen as the same term Paul used in his second letter to the true Christians of Corinth, when he wrote about both he and Barnabas being “snatched away,” where twice was used words rooted in “harpazein” [“harpagenta” and “hērpagē”]. In both of those uses, Paul spoke of their souls being taken from their bodies. This must be seen as the root meaning of what Jesus said, as he had no fear at all that his body would be “seized.” He knew that those fed spiritually would become reborn as Jesus, when their souls would be “seized” by his soul and they would be reborn as Jesus resurrected, with that soul the king of their bodies of flesh.
In the commentary I posted in 2018, I made it clear that this writing states John was the “boy” who was holding the basket that contained the lunch for Jesus and the twelve [plus others of family there]. I want to add now that proof to this is found when verse nine begins by stating, “Being a little boy here” [“Estin paidarion hōde”]. That segment of words identifies John, as he was the author. The capitalization of “Estin” becomes a divinely elevated statement of “Being,” with that “Being” then identified as “a little boy.” The divinely led “Being” was John, who then was “a little boy,” not yet an adult. The aspect that “here” means “in that setting,” for “a little boy” to be “here,” at the top of a mountain where Jesus met with his “disciples,” says John would only be there if he was related to Jesus. For him to be “a little boy” who knew what Jesus was thinking, Jesus was his father and Jesus had explained afterwards why he did what he did, teaching his son as a father would.
As for the element of Jesus walking on the water, I refer to what I wrote in 2018. I firmly believe John writing about this is the proof that John was not on the boat, being the son of Jesus, as both walked back to Capernaum in the dark, most likely using a lantern that illuminated Jesus. Because of the lateness stated by other Gospel writers, the possibility arises that it could have been a dream that John realized spiritually, later in life. The importance that needs to be grasped from the fear experienced by the apostles, when the seas got rough, is it shows a difference between them having already been given the opportunity to see what “seizing Jesus and making him king” over their soul-bodies and those fed spiritual food by them, as Jesus within their souls. The paradox then acts as a prophecy of the fear the apostles would have after Jesus had physically left them, when they hid from everyone, rather than delight that their time had finally come.
As the Gospel selection to be read aloud on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should be well underway, the lesson of this reading says to look forward to when one’s soul will be married to Yahweh, do not fear the turbulence that will come when that day comes. The miracles of feeding five thousand and Jesus walking above the rough waters must be seen as totally attainable by oneself, not something only Jesus could do. To think no more miracles can happen, because Jesus is sitting on a throne in heaven, next to Yahweh, is to have a defeatist attitude that fears letting Yahweh possess one’s soul and bring about the resurrection of His Son’s soul within another’s.
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no elohim.” *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.
2 Yahweh looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after elohim.
3 Every one has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread
and do not call upon Yahweh?
5 See how they tremble with fear, *
because elohim is in the company of the righteous.
6 Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but Yahweh is their refuge.
7 Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.
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This is the Track 1 accompanying Psalm to the Old Testament choice from Second Samuel, when David falls into sin. This will be read aloud in unison or sung by a cantor if chosen on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. This will precede the Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he wrote, “he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit.” All will accompany the Gospel reading for John 6, where Jesus told his fearful disciples, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
In the presentation above, I have restored seven words to what was written by David. Four are removing the NRSV translations of “Yahweh” to “the Lord.” I have returned “Yahweh” as the specific name David used, as it is the name known by all souls truly possessed by Yahweh in marriage. The other three all pertain to the translation of “elohim” as “God.” I have returned those to the original Hebrew, because “elohim” is the theme of this psalm. The first of these uses appears in the first verse, where the NRSV translated “God” [capitalized, in the singular] from “elohim” [not capitalized, in the plural number]. This use of “elohim” must be seen as why this Psalm was chosen to accompany a reading that tells of David’s fall into sin.
Verse one literally states in the Hebrew, “’ā·mar nā·ḇāl bə·lib·bōw ’ên ’ĕ·lō·hîm,hiš·ḥî·ṯū,hiṯ·‘î·ḇū ‘ă·lî·lāh,’ên ‘ō·śêh-ṭō·wḇ”. That literally translates in English to say, “to say foolish inner man no elohim, they lead to ruin , they have done abominable works , none are good”. This becomes a statement that is akin to the scholars of Hebrew and other languages that say, “Pppppppttt to “elohim” meaning “gods.” I will change it to “God,” so I can make sense of what David wrote, as there is only one God, so only fools say there is “no God.”
In reality, David would have never defeated Goliath, evaded Saul’s spear, converted two hundred Philistines, or done any of the other good works he did, if he had not been one of Yahweh’s “elohim,” which as divinely possessed souls. To deny they exist is “foolishness.” By teaching there are “no elohim,” then the teachers are “fools,” who lead others “to ruin” and do “abominable” acts [such as promote homosexuality as a forgiven sin], because all who think that way are “no good.” This first verse must be seen as the theme of failure; and, that is why it is attached to the reading that tells of David living up to his own statement of truth, as a self-fulfilling prophecy. He was a fool to do what he did.
To prove this is the meaning, David wrote in verse two a second use of “elohim,” where he explained they were those seeking to assist Yahweh, through the submission of their souls to Him in marriage. The reality of what the literal translation says in English is this: “Yahweh from heaven looks down upon the sons of Adam to see if there are any who are prudent , who ask for elohim”. This says that “heaven” is the spiritual realm in which souls connect to Yahweh. Rather that “looking down” from the sky, the all-seeing eye of Yahweh “looks out” for those souls who are descended from His Son Adam, as servants who believe, pray, and act according to Mosaic Law. Those who demonstrate a “competency” for marriage with His Spirit those whom Yahweh proposes marriage. Those who say, “Yes,” and receive His Spirit are then those who become a spiritual wife of Yahweh, becoming one of His elohim. David, again, was one of the elohim; and, so too was Jesus and all his Apostles-Saints. Every time one reads “elohim” in Old Testament [Hebrew] texts, this can be translated into English as a statement of the Saints [or true angels].
With this understood about the qualification for who Yahweh chooses to become His elohim [Saints], verse three then lays it on the “fools” named in verse one. In the NRSV English translation that says, “Everyone has proved faithless; all alike have turned bad; there is none who does good; no, not one,” this captures the essence, but not the whole truth. The truth says, “All have turned aside [from being] united [allowing their souls to] have become corrupt [morally] — [of those] none have done good ; none , not one”. This places focus on the Hebrew word “yaḥ·dāw,” which means “unitedness” (Strong’s); and, this is a word stating their lack of faith, which has rejected marriage with Yahweh [“turned aside” – “sār”]. Instead, their souls have “united with” unclean spirits, which is what has “corrupted them [morally]” [“ne·’ĕ·lā·ḥū”]. It is from this evil possession that “none have done good,” because “good” only comes from souls who have married Yahweh.
Verse four is then presented as one long question, such that the NRSV shows: “Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon Yahweh?” The question is asked in the first two words [“hă·lō yā·ḏə·‘ū”], which asks, “have no knowledge?” As the central question, the root word “yada” [“to know”] is not focusing on the powers of a human brain, as that is the organ through which Satan does his tricks of corruption. Therefore, the question asks, “Do they not seek wisdom?”
The following words are not written to give the example of bread as something eaten, such that those who reject marriage to Yahweh are cannibals, who eat Yahweh’s chosen “people” like “bread.” The truth of that series of words says those who reject marriage to Yahweh are Israelites who are the “workers” of Satan [“pō·‘ă·lê”], whose “iniquities [“’ā·wen”] are judged and known to be by all routinely “consuming” [“’ō·ḵə·lê”] divine Scripture, which is the “bread” that is manna from heaven to “people of Yahweh [and David].” For all the memorization those wicked ones do, none of them “call upon Yahweh” to unite with them and show them how to live by His Word.
Verse five then adds the third use of “elohim,” and in divine Scripture repetition is important to realize. The NRSV translation [with “elohim” kept intact] says, “See how they tremble with fear, because elohim is in the company of the righteous.” This translation takes the repetition of “dread” [“pā·ḥă·ḏū p̄a·ḥaḏ”] and morphs “great dread” into “tremble with fear.” This denies the existence of Israelites [in name only] who bow down and worship demons, who then possess them until they cannot escape. More then trembling with fear as coming from an external source, this is “great dread” that has set upon their souls, within their bodies of flesh. Therefore, David then followed that demonic possession with the alternative, which is “for elohim, [there is an inner] dwelling that brings righteousness.” This is then a statement of divine possession, which defines one of the “elohim.”
Verse six then literally translates into English as saying, “the advice of the poor you shames , but Yahweh shelters”. This says that those who “greatly dread” their state of being are told by those “poor” souls that have married Yahweh to do likewise and their “dread” will be erased. Instead of accepting that “advice of the poor” [“‘ă·ṣaṯ- ‘ā·nî”], where “poor” is better stated as “humble,” from subjection to a higher power, they spit the “shame” their souls feel outward onto those who dare to call them out. However, the “shame” is known to be upon their souls only, as “Yahweh has sheltered” all His wives from harm.
Verse seven then sings [NRSV], “Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out of Zion! when Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.” This translation misses the points made in several places, as “Israel,” Zion” and “Jacob” have all been assigned proper name status, which blinds the reader from the underlying truth. The Hebrew written is this: “mî yit·tên miṣ·ṣî·yō·wn yə·šū·‘aṯ yiś·rā·’êl bə·šūḇ Yah-weh šə·ḇūṯ ‘am·mōw,yā·ḡêl ya·‘ă·qōḇ,yiś·maḥ yiś·rā·’êl”. Literally, this translates into English saying, “who gives out of a dry place [the meaning of “Zion”] the salvation of he who retains God [the meaning of “Israel”] when returns Yahweh the captivity of his people , let rejoice supplanter [the meaning of “Jacob”] , be glad he retains God [the meaning of “Israel”].” This verse sings loudly that the freedom of the Israelites from Egypt signifies their release from an unclean spirit ruling over their bodies of flesh. Still, that release from bondage then made their souls the “servants” or “slaves” of Yahweh, as His people. Therefore, the rejoicing is for the transformation of a sinner [Jacob] to a Saint [Israel], all by divine possession, which makes those like David become “elohim.”
As the accompanying Psalm for the Second Samuel optional reading that tells of David’s fall from his commission of sins, David foresaw this when he most likely was seeing Saul when he wrote this [not realizing it would become him too, when the time was deemed right by Yahweh]. David’s transformation into a sinner become the reverse image painted in this song of warning. The protection of David, which made him the greatest king in the history of Israel was due to his soul having joined with Yahweh’s Spirit, so David did as Yahweh commanded. This Psalm 14 then sings about the constant presence of sinners in one’s midst, who are always trying to take one down. David’s fall was purposeful, as no king should ever last in the realm of death that is the material world. Thus, a soul’s only hope for eternal salvation comes through divine marriage and becoming one of Yahweh’s elohim.
If Track 1 is chosen and this song is sung aloud on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry to Yahweh should be well underway, the call is to examine the truth of one’s soul state of being. It is not enough to covet salvation for oneself only [a “self” equates to a “soul”], as an elohim is one soul subjected to serve Yahweh, as His willing conscript. If one “dreads” having to deal with the “poor souls” who constantly do nothing to help themselves, or “dreads” having to tell anyone the only way to salvation is through total self-sacrifice, then one is a soul that has “turned aside” the marriage proposal from Yahweh, instead choosing to kneel down at the altar of self and pray one’s own soul is a god. Not only will that not save one’s soul, it will not save anyone else’s; and, that is the danger that needs to be seen in this song. It has never been about your soul. It has always been about all souls, with your just a drop in that bucket.
Q Ms Gk Syr”; and, they are not numbered as verse 14.]
15 [14] Yahweh upholds all those who fall; *
he lifts up those who are bowed down.
16 [15] The eyes of all wait upon you, Yahweh, *
and you give them their food in due season.
17 [16] You open wide your hand *
and satisfy the needs of every living creature.
18 [17] Yahweh is righteous in all his ways *
and loving in all his works.
19 [18] Yahweh is near to those who call upon him, *
to all who call upon him faithfully.
——————–
This is the accompanying Psalm to the Track 2 Old Testament reading from Second Kings 4:42-44, where Elisha instructed: “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says Yahweh, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” If chosen, this song will be read aloud in unison or sung by a cantor on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 12], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. Both will precede the Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he wrote: “you may have the power to comprehend.” All will be presented before the Gospel reading from John 6, where he told of the multitude being fed and afterwards seen walking on the sea.
It must be noted that I have made adjustments to this song of praise, where the Episcopal Church has taken it upon itself to renumber the verses, as if David’s hand was inadequate and their more divinely led. The NRSV, to whom the Episcopal Church notes is the source of its translations into English, presents two lines as unnumbered, between verses fourteen and fifteen. They note those two lines as coming from a source other than the standard verses of Psalm 145. That note brings into question the source and ask why it is included at all. The Episcopal Church has yanked that football from the NRSV and begun running hard towards their own endzone, foolishly playing gods. I have bracketed the actual verse numbering that the NRSV presents, as they do not number the added lines. As an error on both their parts, they fear calling the God of David “Yahweh,” as did David. They put the words “o Lord” on his quill, rather than call Yahweh the name that is their God. I have returned all the mentions of a specific “Yahweh” to that state, as Yahweh is MY GOD.
It should also be noted that Psalm 145 is fully twenty-one verses, with each verse identified by a letter in the Hebrew alphabet. These letters numerically align with the verse number, such that the first Hebrew letter [aleph] is assigned to the first verse, and so on. Verse thirteen has the thirteenth letter assigned to it [mem – מ], but the fourteenth verse has assigned to it the fifteenth letter [samech – ס], which makes the fourteenth letter [nun – נ] be excluded, which makes the addition of a missing verse take that position, as the NRSV has placed it. Still, the point now is this reading is only a portion of the alphabet’s representations. Psalm 145 is read on five different dates in the lectionary cycle, once entirely and the other times partial, like this reading is. This is the only reading during Year B, with it optional. The added verse [numbered 14 by the Episcopal Church] will also be part of selected verses during the Proper 9 service, Year A. Two other readings [the exception being the one whole reading] avoid the verse 14 anomaly.
Verse ten is shown to say, “All your works praise you, Yahweh, and your faithful servants bless you.” While not read, verse nine ends by singing of “his works” [“ma·‘ă·śāw”], which is now continued in verse ten as “your works” [“ma·‘ă·śe·ḵā”]. The error of this translation is it makes it seem that “the works” [“massah”] appear out of thin air, for all to marvel at and praise. The reality must be seen as all of “the works” of Yahweh referenced here are those done by those married to Yahweh’s Spirit. As such, those doing “the works” must give “praise to Yahweh.” These are “the works” done by “the pious,” therefore “saints” [from “chasid”], who have been “blessed” by Yahweh to do these “works,” which then also “bless” others.
Verse eleven is then shown to say, “They make known the glory of your kingdom and speak of your power.” This says the “glory of Yahweh’s kingdom will speak” through those who have become the place where Yahweh rules. That place makes their bodies of flesh be His “kingdom.” As such, their “works” are what “speak” of that “glory,” as normal human beings are incapable of producing such “works.” Because normal human beings cannot produce such “works,” that reflects upon a divine “power,” which is only possible for those whose souls have married Yahweh.
Verse twelve is then improperly translated as “That the peoples may know of your power and the glorious splendor of your kingdom,” because “the peoples” is a paraphrase of that written. David wrote, “lə·hō·w·ḏî·a liḇ·nê hā·’ā·ḏām gə·ḇū·rō·ṯāw,” which literally translates to say, “he makes known through the sons of man his mighty acts.” The implication that “peoples may know” misinforms, as it gives the impression that all peoples have knowledge of what great things Yahweh makes happen. Those things are the “works” of the “sons of man,” of whom Jesus said he was one. The truth of knowledge [rooted in “yada”] is it means personal experience, from which comes true faith. This is knowledge the normal people do not possess, just as they cannot perform miracles and great things.
Verse thirteen then sings, “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; your dominion endures throughout all ages.” This accurate translation requires one to recall verse eleven also speaking of a “kingdom.” Yahweh is Yahweh. Yahweh is the King only in the sense that a soul inhabiting a body of flesh is itself a ‘king’ with the power of that realm being its flesh – its ‘kingdom.’ This means a soul is “everlasting,” such that the submission of that soul, through marriage to Yahweh, makes Yahweh’s “kingdom” be the realm of each wife’s flesh, which is temporal and bound to die. Thus, David was not singing about Yahweh being a God so great that he lived in some vast place that is the fantasy of ‘heaven,’ because the reality of Yahweh’s kingdom is the soul and body of David, which was all David knew. To marry one’s soul to Yahweh means the “dominion throughout all ages” is eternal salvation earned by one’s soul.
The unnumbered verse, which would naturally seem to fall under the position for the letter nun, my seeking Hebrew websites that present Psalm 145 in the Hebrew, along with English translations, none of them show twenty-two verses, which is the number of Hebrew letters. All show Psalm 145 as a twenty-one-verse psalm. From investigating the esoteric meaning of the letter nun, the word means “snake” in Hebrew, with the glyph thought to be borrowed from the Egyptian hieroglyphic of a snake. The word also means “eel,” in Aramaic. Simply from this meaning, it seems quite possible that this one letter would be the one omitted from the Hebrew alphabet, so twenty-one verses would still be seen as metaphor for the whole alphabet. The one letter to leave out would be that designated to the serpent.
Because there are no sources of the Hebrew to audit, with only the insertion by the reference source listed by the NRSV to evaluate the English, it seems snakelike to offer any opinions in this commentary. I will add that the NIV makes a better footnote about what the Episcopal Church has assigned a number fourteen to, stating: “One manuscript of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls and Syriac (see also Septuagint); most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text do not have the last two lines of verse 13.” That will be as far as I can go with this set of words. It seems someone must have felt the need to add what seemed to be missing; and, I am certain whoever that was did not write in English; and, anything seen as “the Lord” would mean “Yahweh” was written.
Verse fourteen then sings, “Yahweh upholds all those who fall; he lifts up those who are bowed down.” In this fairly accurate translation of the Hebrew, the aspects of “fall,” “bow down,” “uphold” and “uplift” need to be see in spiritual terms, more than physical. The spiritual “upholding” and “falling” needs to be seen as the forgiveness of sins, when a soul makes sincere repentance to Yahweh. This leads to marriage of one’s soul to Yahweh’s Spirit. This continues through the persecution that comes, up to and including death, when the body “falls” away, while the soul is “upheld.” When the aspect of “uplifting” is seen, this is both the state of righteousness a soul leads while in the flesh and also the reward of eternal life after death. This spiritual “uplifting” comes after marriage, which is when one’s soul “bows down” or “bends” to the Will of Yahweh, as His servant as His wife.
Verse fifteen then sings, “The eyes of all wait upon you, Yahweh, and you give them their food in due season.” This verse most closely aligns with the Second Kings reading of the first fruits taken to Elisha, where grain for twenty loaves fed one hundred prophets, with leftovers remaining. This means “the eyes” are not physical, but those of spiritual insight, such that the truth is looked for, expected to be coming from Yahweh. The aspect of “in due season” means the truth will be exposed when the time is right. All “food” is spiritual knowledge which is fed to His wives so their devotion is enhanced daily, as omers of manna gathered.
Verse sixteen then sings, “You open wide your hand and satisfy the needs of every living creature.” In this, there should be a comma mark after “hand,” which separates the words that begin this verse saying, “you open your hand.” This must not be read as some cloudy “hand” of God coming down to earth and “surprise!” something material falls out for good little boys and girls to gather freely – like manna. A wife of Yahweh is “His hand” on earth. Therefore, to be “open” means the soul of that “hand” is no longer closed to receiving His Spirit.
To then read, “and satisfy the needs of every living creature,” the word translated as “living creature” is “ḥay” [“chay”], which means “living, alive.” This needs to be seen as a statement that a soul has gained the promise of eternal life – beyond the grave of physical death – so the “satisfaction” that comes is not for a need [that word, like “creature,” is an addition of paraphrase and not written] but for desire. Once a soul has been opened as a “hand” of Yahweh, the desire is to “satisfy” all the commands of Yahweh [as a submissive wife in marriage], because one’s soul has come “alive.”
Verse seventeen then sings, “Yahweh is righteous in all his ways and loving in all his works.” In this, the first word of the verse actually places focus on a state of “righteousness.” It is ridiculous to think Yahweh acts in any way, as Yahweh IS, thus the name “I AM That I Am.” It is only on the worldly plane that acts of life occur, with most acts being self-motivated, thus bound to eventually find sinful acts as routine. Those souls who have married Yahweh and become one with His Spirit then submit their bodies of flesh to His Will. That Will allows a soul to resist the influences of sin and that becomes one’s path that is “righteous.” That path is impossible to travel alone, with a soul not married to Yahweh.
The word translated as “loving” is “wə·ḥā·sîḏ” [from “chasid”], which means “kind, pious, godly, good, merciful, and saint.” This comes after a comma mark, which means this state of being [“following His ways”] has transformed a human being into one others will naturally gravitate to, either to persecute or learn from. The intuition of “love” makes this relationship justified as being a state that has come from marriage, where marriage is based on a love relationship. Still, this “love” is not to glorify one person’s soul, as it is to produce the “works” that are “saintly” and bring other souls to Yahweh.
The last verse in this selection is actually verse eighteen, which sings, “Yahweh is near to those who call upon him, to all who call upon him faithfully.” In the first half of this verse, the operative word is “near” [“qā·rō·wḇ”]. This word must be seen in terms of being “in relationship” with Yahweh, where “near” means being married – soul to Spirit. As Christians, a soul that is the wife of Yahweh then gives birth to the soul of His Son Jesus, which is resurrected alongside one’s soul. That divine presence then becomes the dominant soul in divine possession, which causes one’s body to act in righteous ways. As far as Yahweh being “near” then, the relationship that IS marriage [wife to Husband] then changes to also be a soul becoming another Son of man, making Yahweh be the Father. This is the purpose of David using that word first.
When one then sees this “near” state of being is due to “those who call upon him,” this does not mean Yahweh responds like a dog when called, where all one has to do is pray to Yahweh and He comes to the rescue. The word translated as “who call upon him” [“qō·rə·’āw”] means “those who proclaim [or speak] as him.” The word then written that has been translated into “faithfully” [“be·’ĕ·meṯ”] means that “called out” by His Saints will always be “the truth,” with “firmness” that cannot be bent and twisted to mean something other than the “truth.” The “faithfulness” is then, again, in the receiver of Yahweh’s Spirit, not Yahweh being “faithful” to someone who is not in relationship with Him.
This Psalm is chosen to accompany the Second Kings reading of a miracle of first fruits feeding a hundred prophets during a famine. This song of praise says Elisha and his hundred prophets were all married souls to Yahweh and the first fruits were the spiritual food that was Yahweh’s gift to them, to give them strength to continue without fear. Each verse in this song of praise places focus on a personal relationship that a soul must have with Yahweh. In that regard, one must be in love with God enough to call Him by name, not mumble out something generic, like “the Lord,” which every pagan on the planet has a god like that. One must have the soul guts to know Yahweh personally.
As a reading chosen to be sung aloud on the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should be well underway, this sings of a know presence of Yahweh that others do not know and cannot know. This song of praise must be the individual saint’s song that revels in understanding, because one has ‘been there, done that.’ A ministry without a grasp of the meaning found here is lost and wayward. One must cease denying one’s soul marriage to Yahweh and begin a true ministry that knows the truth afforded upon one’s soul.
Explaining the Readings 