God�s Plan seen in the Hebrews?
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Topic: God�s Plan seen in the Hebrews?
Posted By: Bismarck
Subject: God�s Plan seen in the Hebrews?
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 9:25pm
Biblical scholars often connect the "Hebrews" of the Bible with the "Apiru/
Abiru" described in Egyptian and Mesopotamian records. The Hebrews/
Abirus were social outcasts who lived on the fringes of settled, civilized,
"9-to-5 life" in the Fertile Crescent. They were ruffians, outlaws,
mercenaries, and independent craftsmen who wouldn't bow and submit
themselves to the tyrannical yokes of the Pharaohs and Priestkings.
In short, the Hebrews/Abirus were like American frontiersmen: rough,
grizzled, and fiercely independent men who didn't like to pay no frigging
taxes to nobody. You could watch the Charles Bronson movie
Deathhunt, itself based upon the famous manhunt of Albert Johnson
in the Yukon Territory of Canada in 1931/2. Johnson had a run-in with
the law because he wouldn't pay for a trapping license, and the
authorities were sent after him. Here are some links:
[INDENT] http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/NWT/madtrapper.htm
- http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/NWT/madtrapper.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Johnson_criminal - http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Johnson_(criminal )
[/INDENT]
The point is, Albert Johnson being on the "wrong side" of the law is
exactly how the Apiru/Abiru are described by the Powers-That-Were in
the Middle East in 1500 BCE (before the Egyptian Captivity, Exodus,
and Formation of Israel). The Pharaohs and their underlings would
always complain about outlaw bands of Apiru/Abiru/Hebrews raiding
their lands (like Robin Hood or Jesse James) and refusing to settle down
and pay taxes like everyone else, even as they made great mercenary
soldiers (like Teddy Roosevelt's famous Roughriders in the anti-
Catholic Spanish-American War of 1898).
The point is: the Hebrews were fiercely independent roughnecks who
were, therefore, hated and despised by the Powers-That-Were who
wanted only pliant taxpaying sheeple. The Hebrews were social
outcasts, rejected by society.
But now witness the power of God, the power of YHWH-Elohim! God
sends the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) to the Israelites, who,
hated as they are, have been enslaved by the Pharaohs of Egypt... and not
only do they escape, survive 40 years roughing it in the Outback, but then
create a powerful nation-state of Israel... that survives for 700 years...
right smack dab in the middle of the lucrative trade routes between Egypt
and Mesopotamia!
That is, trapped between Egypt and Babylon...
to wit, stuck between Hitler and Stalin...
the Hebrews, by the Grace of God (for sending Moses to them and
revealing His will and instructions) and their own Belief and obedience to
God's commands, rose up in a powerful nation-state that contended
against both "Hitler" and "Stalin" for 700 years!
Allow me one more analogy: imagine you have two giant oak trees
growing next to each other, representing Egypt and Babylon. Their broad
branches blanket the ground in shadow, and their accumulated dead
leaves smother out the ground further. There is no way a normal plant of
any kind can take root, much less grow up, in between them! But, by the
power of YHWH, the "Great Cedar" of Israel was planted right smack dab
between them, and manage to elbow its way upwards through the bows
and branches of the two oak trees (Egypt and Babylon) and unfurl its own
leaves in the light! Truly a miracle, yet by all accounts, Biblical and
archeological, it did happen!
And what is even more: YHWH did it with the very crew those two oak
trees (Egypt and Babylon) had rejected! Those who were rejected by men
were blessed by YHWH-Elohim! Truly the message of all the
Abrahamic faiths, "great men are born in huts" as it were: Muhammad was
an orphan, Jesus was born in a manger, Joseph was sold into slavery,
Jacob was a runaway refugee, Abraham was a nomad from the highlands.
1 Peter 2
4As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the
sight of God chosen and precious, 5you yourselves like living
stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to
offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Psalm 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief corner stone.
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