By Allan Cornford
Copyright © 2023 Allan Cornford. (Standard Copyright License.) All rights reserved. Independently Published through KDP
It may not sound ‘politically correct’ but the high calling of the children of Israel was straight from the heart of God who chose them out of all the nations of the earth.
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God:
the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Deuteronomy 7:6
That ‘choosing’ however did not automatically assure that all Israel would live the part, for they were required to live in obedience, and would receive either blessing or cursing accordingly.
Of the 12 Hebrew tribes, Judah was the most faithful and the most active in making converts, especially after they teamed up with the Levites.
RELIGION: CHRISTIANITY: Joseph-Ephraim Versus Juda – Library of Rickandria
Their converts became known as the proselytes (i.e. the ones who prayed to Jehovah, the God of Judah).
The other 10 tribes, collectively known as Israel, did not fulfil their calling and separated from Judah and always did evil in God’s eyes.
Israel as a whole worshipped false gods, and went into sin, and God had to cast her out of the land.
Shortly before his death, Moses reminded the people of this and issued dire warning that due to their profane lifestyle, great evil would come upon them, especially during the latter days.
For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 31:29
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
Time and again over the course of their turbulent history, the children of Israel rejected their God in favor of serving the pagan gods of the surrounding nations, and time and again they suffered as a result. Judges 2:11
You can read about their history in the Book of Kings 1 & 2.
Considered one of the minor prophets, the Book of Amos was likely written between 760 and 753 B.C. making the Book of Amos the first Biblical prophetic book written.
More than almost any other book of Scripture, the book of Amos holds God’s people accountable for their ill-treatment of others.
Amos can see that beneath Israel’s external prosperity and power, internally the nation is corrupt to the core.
Of all the multitudes delivered out of Egypt, Amos brings the word of God specifically against the children of Israel, saying:
You only have I known of all the families of the earth:
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Amos 3:2
In Chapter 5, Verse 2, Amos makes the astounding statement:
“The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.”
The ‘virgin of Israel’ is never mentioned again in the Bible, for as God said,
“there is none to raise her up.”
Why would God say this?
Worship of the 6-pointed Star of Saturn!
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Amos 5:26
Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them:
and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Acts 7:43
The Exile
Jesus has zero-tolerance for child sacrifice and strictly forbids it.
One of, if not the primary reason for the 70-year captivity of the Jews in Babylon was the abominable practice of child sacrifice by fire to Molech. ()
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; Jeremiah 32: 35-36
The Book of Jeremiah, which was written between 630 and 580 B.C. records the final prophecies to Judah, warning of oncoming destruction if the nation does not repent of its idolatrous and immoral lifestyle.
Jeremiah (Hebrew: יִרְמְיָהוּ, romanized: Yirmĭyāhu, lit. ‘Yah shall raise’, Koinē Greek: Ἰερεμίας, romanized: Ieremíās; c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the “weeping prophet”, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch ben Neriah, his scribe and disciple.
Jeremiah foretold how the nation would remain in Babylon for 70 years, before returning to their homeland.
For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. Jeremiah 29:10
In 589 B.C. the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem for over a year, killing many people, taking captive many thousand more, and destroying the First Temple built by Solomon, leaving Jerusalem in ruins.
70 yeas later and just as Jeremiah foretold, Babylon was conquered by Cyrus II of Persia, who allowed the exiles to return to their homeland, and rebuild the City of Jerusalem and the Second Temple.
Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūruš; c. 600 – 530 BC),[b] commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly across most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create what would soon become the largest empire in history at the time. The Achaemenid Empire’s greatest territorial extent was achieved under Darius the Great, whose rule stretched from Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.
Miles Williams Mathis: Iran’s Jewish Rulers – Library of Rickandria
The Babylonian Exile opened ‘Pandora’s Box’ so to speak, for though in the earlier years of captivity they still feared the LORD, (which is the beginning of wisdom), the children of Israel began to seek after and serve the strange pagan gods which were released.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom:
and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. 2 Kings 17:33
After decades of intermarriage, and having been born in exile, it was a new generation who returned from Babylon, and Israel was largely replaced with:
- Canaanites
- Medeans
- Babylonians
Miles Williams Mathis: Phoenicians – Where did they ALL Go? – Library of Rickandria
So, the new residents no longer feared the LORD and appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the groves, and erect shrines on the high places.
And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD:
therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 2 Kings 17:25
During the 70-year exile, the Jewish folks and their priests were exposed to:
- Chaldean science
- pagan ritual
- magic
and mysticism, and one has to wonder how much that influenced Jewish thought.
Certainly, it led to the development of the astrology and numerology for which the Chaldean Magi became famous.
This developing mixture of Babylonian paganism and Old Testament teachings was responsible for the spiritual blindness of the Jewish leaders in the days of Christ.
The Virgin of Israel had fallen, and since their return from Babylon the foreigners now in Jerusalem feared not the Lord, hence lacked the wisdom to recognize the arrival of the promised Messiah.
CIVILIZATION: BABYLON: Where Was it & Does it Still Exist? – Library of Rickandria
Unto this day they do after the former manners:
they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 2 Kings 17:34
Due to no inspired written instruction from God, the four hundred years between the completion of Malachi the final book of the Old Testament, and the birth of Jesus Christ, are sometimes called ‘the silent years’.
During this period:
- Kabbalists
- Pharisees
- Sadducees
- Essenes
- Samaritans
- Zealots
- Herodians (Edomites)
and the Hasmoneans codified the Gnostic texts of the Apocrypha.
RELIGION: GNOSTICISM: ANCIENT & MODERN – Library of Rickandria
These ‘hidden texts’ were then used by Essenes in Qumran who wrote the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls‘, which were later used to write the:
- ‘Nag Hammadi Scrolls‘
- The ‘Talmud’
- the ‘Zohar’
In an attempt to justify man’s failure and weakness, during the silent years the Jewish religious leaders issued a whole variety of new laws and interpretations.
RELIGION: CHRISTIANITY: Masoretes – Library of Rickandria
While publicly retaining the appearance of Godliness, they became more elaborate and complex in an attempt to circumvent the written law as given by God to Moses.
These rules and regulations which have since been written down and compiled in ‘The Babylonian Talmud’ include, three chapters on how to behave in an outdoor toilet, much about bodily discharges especially feces, and handwashing from dawn to dusk to ward off unclean spirits or devils, against which Christ declaimed.
Just the rules of the Sabbath alone would leave one scratching one’s head in bewilderment.
For example, can you imagine being homeless in today’s society, and a holy ‘man of the cloth’ comes down on you like a ‘ton of bricks’ for having the audacity to pick up your sleeping-bag, on a Sunday of all days, and cart your belongings to another shop doorway in the adjacent street.
That’s how crazy things had become in Jesus’ day, for the religious authorities had determined that such an act constituted ‘carrying a load’ on the Sabbath.
Therefore, it was in breach of the commandments of God.
This is why the rulers of the Synagogue were so outraged with Jesus when he healed a man on the Sabbath.
Not because he’d broken the law of God, but because he had broken the law of the Pharisee.
Jesus didn’t mince his words but told the Pharisees outright that their spiritual father was the devil.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44
He also told them their religion was based on the traditions of man, that it was not of God nor did they derive it from the Old Testament.
Hence His words recorded in Matthew 15:6:
And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free.
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Although some of the more dubious doctrines were concealed from the general public, they were rigorously upheld by the religious leaders.
The Pharisees took great pride in their piety and as was their daily custom, prayed on the streets so as to be seen by the public.
They were the ones responsible for stirring up dissent among the Jews by claiming Jesus to be a blasphemer and an imposter, which led to his mock trial and crucifixion.
These were the men Jesus accused of being hypocrites, and likened their religion to white-washed sepulchres, indeed beautiful from the outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27
Jesus also warned the scribes and the Pharisees, that the shed blood of all the prophets slain since the foundation of the world, would be required of their generation.
That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; Luke 11:50
In fact, Jesus had much to say, and many dire warnings for this particular generation in the latter days, which Moses too, had previously warned of.
For these were the days also foretold of by the prophet Daniel, who, in a night vision saw one like the Son of man coming in the clouds.
A vision which would come to pass
”at the time of the end.”
So he came near where I stood:
and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face:
but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man:
for at the time of the end shall be the vision. Daniel 8:17
For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 31:29
The birth of a King
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Daniel 7:13
Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. Daniel 10:14
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Daniel 9:24
Sixty-nine weeks out of Daniel’s prophetic seventy weeks of years, namely, 69×7=483 years, were perfectly fulfilled, when Jesus started his public ministry.
This is why there was an air of expectation and excitement in Israel at the time, for the religious Jews rightly understood that Daniel’s prophetic seventy weeks of years, were almost at the point of conclusion.
And why John the Baptist, who was in prison at the time, sent his disciples to ask of Jesus, if he truly were the coming one, or should they look for another?
And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Matthew 11:3
And why the people cried out:
”Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:” Mark 11:9
Whether aware of Daniel’s prophecy, or not, even the magi, the wise men from the east, recognized the imminent birth of the new king of the Jews.
They had followed the star they had seen in the east, all the way to Jerusalem.
Saying,
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. Matthew 2:2
For these wise men, the magi, were learned in the art of astrology, and had recognized that the world was entering the Age of Pisces, which began in AD 1, the year King Jesus was born.
Which is why the fish symbol has long been associated with Christianity.
It has nothing to do with his followers being fishers of men but represents the dawn of the age Jesus was born into.
Spiritual warfare at the highest level was underway at the birth of Christ, for I suspect that the guiding star was Satan himself who can appear as an angel of light.
For Satan knew that the only way he could ever be defeated by the seed of the woman (as prophesied in Genesis 3:15), was if God himself were to come in the flesh.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Hence the picture presented by Matthew, is one of Satan, working through the hearts of wicked men, to destroy Jesus as a young child, whilst God the Father was always one step ahead, by protecting his only begotten Son.
Yet the scriptures are crystal clear, prophecy was being fulfilled, every step of the way.
Ultimately, by following the star, the wise men encountered king Herod, a wickedly jealous and unscrupulous man, who told them to report back to him once they had found the newborn king.
For according to the lying Herod, he too wanted to worship the king, but in truth, he wanted to destroy him.
Herod then called for the chief priests and scribes, demanding to know where the Christ would be born.
And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea:
for thus it is written by the prophet. Matthew 2:5
From here, the star appeared once again, leading the wise men to Bethlehem, and to the very house where the young child Jesus, was with Mary, his mother.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:11
Having worshipped Jesus and presented their regal gifts, God warned the wise men in a dream, not to return to Herod, but to take a different route back to their homeland.
Which much to Herod’s disgust, they duly obeyed.
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word:
for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt:
And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Matthew 2:13-15
In the meanwhile, Herod was livid that the wise men had not reported back to him, and in a fit of murderous rage issued orders for what would become known as the ‘Massacre of the Innocents‘.
The execution of all male children who were two years old and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem.
This was Satan’s attempt to kill Jesus, by working through the evil, murderous heart of a willing human king, but it also fulfilled prophecy.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Matthew 2:17-18
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel:
for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. Matthew 2:19-20
Having duly returned to Israel, Joseph became fearful for his family, because Herod’s son, Archelaus, was now reigning in Judaea.
Herod Archelaus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρῴδης Ἀρχέλαος, Hērōidēs Archelaos; 23 BC – c. AD 18) was the ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea, including the cities Caesarea and Jaffa, for nine years (c. 4 BC to AD 6). He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace the Samaritan, brother of Herod Antipas, and half-brother of Herod II. Archelaus (a name meaning “leading the people”) came to power after the death of his father Herod the Great in 4 BC, and ruled over one-half of the territorial dominion of his father. Archelaus was removed by the Roman emperor Augustus when Judaea province was formed under direct Roman rule, at the time of the Census of Quirinius.
Having been warned of God in a dream, Joseph now headed towards Galilee.
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth:
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. Matthew 2:23
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Luke 21:32
On the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:16 reads:
”But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;”
According to Jesus, all would be fulfilled during the lifetime of the first generation of believers.
This would have included all of Joel’s prophecies.
Such as; Joel 2:1:
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain:
let all the inhabitants of the land tremble:
for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble:
the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: Joel 2:10
Time and again throughout the gospels, Jesus warned His audience that all of the Old Testaments prophecies would be fulfilled during their generation.
Furthermore, many of them would still be alive to witness the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, just as prophesied by Daniel.
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Daniel 7:13
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Matthew 16:28
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Mark 13:26
It is quite clear, that Jesus spent his ministry years, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, to a generation of people living in the last days and at the time of the end for Israel.
Some of whom would still be alive to witness his coming in the clouds.
CONTINUE
BOOK: Lucifer’s Flood & the Little Season – Library of Rickandria