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God's Plan seen in Hebrews?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Bismarck, Feb 24, 2007.

  1. Bismarck

    Bismarck New Member

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    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:


    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.
     
    #1 Bismarck, Feb 24, 2007
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 24, 2007
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