שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד
Hear intelligently with attention and interest, comprehend and obey, O Yisra'el, יהוה our 'Elohiym is יהוה alone!
–Dabariym [deuteronomy] 6:4 His Name Tanakh**
What? Were you born in a barn?
One of the problems that I can see with those of us who are followers of יהוה, is that we (more often than not) appear to be no different outwardly, in our day to day lives, than many unbelievers. Often times our manner of speech– including how we say something, our manner of dress, the activities we participate in and the manner in which we conduct ourselves, yes even our general attitudes, cannot be distinguished as any different from that of the unbeliever in יהוה. To that end I ask the question: "What? Were you born in a barn?"
Many believers in יהוה have gotten together to have discussions about the deplorable lack of manners in our society today. "Where is decorum?" they cry out. Many lament and decry the seemingly endless onslaught of rude and boorish behavior which seems to be displayed ever more increasingly from every direction of our culture. This boorish behavior can especially be seen to be glorified, put on a pedestal as it were, on our television and movie theater screens. It even seems to be impossible to listen to the radio these days, due to the blitzkrieg of dirty innuendo and outright sexually explicit mouthings that emanate from what is now typically known as the shock-jock (yet, sadly enough, no one seems to be at all that shocked anymore). And so I find I must ask: "What? Were you born in a barn?"
We sit around in our discussion groups: in our home meeting places, at our 'Feasts of יהוה', and in online chat-rooms plaintively debating the on-set of the end of decency. In our schools, work places, restaurants and entertainment venues of all varieties, and all public places in general, we believe that the very basest and most common denominator has gained the high ground against us. And so I ask again: "What? Were you born in a barn?"
I ask you, yet, once again: "What? Were you born in a barn?" It may be that the repetition of this seemingly banal and trite question has caused some who are reading this to wonder if indeed there is a point hidden here somewhere in some dark, unnoticed niche or crevice! But, wretchedly enough for all of us, there is indeed a point– a point which seems to me, if not to anyone else, to be a glaring blot on the perceived assured-attainment of a set place in יהוה's kingdom.
What are we as יהוה's people? Are we not to be the salt of the earth? The very "spice" of יהוה, used by Him to show a sinful and utterly tasteless world the way of יהוה? Are we (and our actions) not to be part of the salt covenant יהוה made with Yisra'el? Should we not make our actions an offering of 'salt' in all that we do, showing others we are covenented with the Almighty?
Va’iyqrah (levit.) 2:13 – The whole and complete of what you bring near, that which is brought, you will salt with salt powder; do not allow the salt of the covenant of your 'Elohiym to be lacking from that which is brought; The whole and complete of what you bring near you will bring near with salt.
Yechezqe'l [ezekial] 43:24 – And you will bring them near, before the face of יהוה, and the kohaniym will cast salt over them, and will offer them up in a fire to יהוה.
Are we not to add the righteous essence that יהוה so intensely desires to be found upon the face of the earth and among His very people, those of us of the House of Yisra'el? And if we are unable, or unwilling to add this righteous flavoring, this seasoning of salt, shall we not then, and deservedly so, become excluded from the assembly of יהוה?
Allow me to elaborate with some examples taken from the realm of everyday life and from some of the people I have known. As I do so, I hope that you will bear with me, if I seem to be too verbose or detailed, as I believe the point that I am making necessitates what some might consider an overly extreme approach, but "What? Were you born in a barn?"
My first example involves a lot of unthinking and self-absorbed people and a lawbreaker willing to take advantage of a brother's adherence to the Towrah, as well as not just a few respecters of men.
Mishliy [proverbs] (proverbs) 18:5 – It is not rightness to lift the face of the wicked guilty one, to pervert the righteous in a just cause in judgment, justice or ordinance.
Mishliy [proverbs] 24:23 – These, moreover, are for the intelligent. It is not valuable in estimation, appropriate or agreeable, to recognise, respect, discern, regard or scrutinize the face of anyone in a verdict or formal decree or a judgment, justice and ordinance.
Mal'akiy (malachi) 1:8 – If you draw near and approach the blind to offer up for to kill or for slaughter in divine judgment, is it not evil and displeasing? If you draw near and approach the lame, diseased or the weak, is it not evil and displeasing? Draw near, then, to your governor; will he be pleased or lift your face? says יהוה of armies and warfare.
I know of someone, I'll call him Fred, who was new to a certain assembly and was seeking יהוה and brothers and sisters of the Faith of יהוהto congregate with. Early one Shabbath morning as Fred arrived at the assembly he fell victim, as it were, to a combination of a lack of basic manners and basic selfishness. A robotic like adherence, if you will, to a penury of concern and a careless fog-engulfed pursuit of daily life and, laughably, the Qodesh. A combination of events, leading up to a "snowball" effect. The aftermath of which spanned more than three years!
The parking lot at the assembly was unpaved and unmarked. People parked their automobiles wherever they desired or could fit them. The lot was full when he arrived and most of the automobiles were parked in a crooked and haphazard manner, many of them parked with five to six feet of space between them. So, in a parking lot with enough room for, say, forty to fifty cars to park it was completely filled up with about twenty-five. Fred was forced to park to the side of an entrance way.
Another man, let's call him Bill, arriving later had the same problem and parked in front of Fred. Later in the day this man, rushing home to take a nap, backed into Fred's car causing almost two thousand dollars worth of damages. Now how you can miss a six foot long by four foot wide piece of– well, anything is simply beyond me. It can only be achieved by being so self-absorbed as to not care about anything or anybody around you. The Towrah of יהוה is focused on, not just our reverence of Him, but on our relationships with all of His creation in its entirety. Do we put others first, or is our main concern for ourselves even when our course of action causes us to significantly go wide of the mark of יהוה?
And of course this man leaned on the brotherhood of the Faith, telling Fred he would pay for the damages out of his own pocket rather than calling the insurance company. His first concern was for himself, not Fred, in an I just smashed into your car- take care of me mind-set. He did not ask Fred what hardships Fred might endure due to this event (imagine that). Fred told the man he did not want to discuss business on Shabbath suggesting they discuss it after the sun was completely set. Bill left before Shabbath was over. Imagine that!
Shemoth [exodus] 20:10-11 – But the seventh day is a Shabbath to יהוה your 'Elohiym: in it you will not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your man-servant, or your maid-servant, or your cattle, or your stranger that is within your gates:
11. For in six days יהוה made Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. For that reason יהוה blessed the Shabbath day, and made it Qadash.
Shemoth [exodus] 31:12-17 – יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying:
13. Speak you also to the sons of Yisra'el, saying: Surely you will hedge about, as with thorns, and guard and protect My Shabbowth: for it is as the arrival of one to the mark and a signal between Me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am יהוה Who makes you Qadash.
14. You will keep the Shabbath; for it is Qodesh to you: everyone that wounds, breaks or dissolves it will surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on that day that soul will be cut off from among his people.
15. Six days will work be done, but on the seventh day is a Shabbath of quiet rest, Qodesh to יהוה: whoever does any work on the Shabbath day, he will surely be put to death.
16. Therefore the sons of Yisra'el will keep the Shabbath, to observe the Shabbath throughout their generations, for a covenant beyond the field of vision of time and space.
17. It is as the arrival of one to the mark and a signal between Me and the sons of Yisra'el beyond the field of vision of time and space: for in six days יהוה made Heaven and Earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.
Wa'iyqrah [leviticus] 23:3 – Six days will work be done: but the seventh day is a Shabbath of solemn rest! A Qodesh Assembly; you will do no manner of work: it is a Shabbath to יהוה in all your dwellings.
The next Shabbath Fred went to Bill and reminded him that he had promised to speak with him after the last Shabbath, and would Bill please speak with him after sundown this Shabbath? Once again Bill tried to make the conversation then and there and Fred had to remind him again about doing business on the Shabbath. But Bill once again left before Shabbath was over. Surprise, surprise! I'll shorten this illustration a bit by stating that this occurred week after week for quite awhile.
Remember the snowball? It had just become the size of the house and was preparing to roll-over and crush poor Fred! During this time Fred lost a lot of work, due to the fact that his job involved the use of his car. He lost money! He literally went hungry, went without heat in the wintertime and air conditioning in the summertime when temperatures climbed several degrees over the hundred-degree mark. He had to beg and borrow to make payments! And he continued to, literally, go hungry-- eating one meal a day and sometimes skipping two or three days!
Finally Fred wrote down all the Law violations pertaining to this incidence and mailed it to the elders of this assembly. Finally, several months after all this began, Bill contacted Fred and arranged to pay for the damages. Now I want to point out that Bill did indeed actually pay! Let there be no mistake about that, but he only paid for the actual damages, not the Lawful three to five times the amount required by HaTowrah. He neither cared about the hardships Fred endured (he ended up losing his job!) nor offered any help, assistance or restitution to cover Fred's burdens, which he, Bill, had brought on by his self-loving nature! By the time Fred got paid, he had to use the money to pay back rent and other bills. He never was able to fix his automobile, which he eventually lost to the junk pile.
Incidentally, yes Fred did undeniably try to find other work! But most Shabbath keepers know the burden of telling a prospective employer about the one day we refuse to work! Would mentioning the loss of his mobility be appropriate here? It is not easy in today's societal make-up to get by with-out an automobile as well as keeping the Shabbath of יהוה. The whole sticky situation encompassed a three year period of time and did a lot to damage Fred's faith in the brotherhood (to neither my nor Fred's knowledge none of the other 'faithful' of Bill's group attempted to intercede or clear-up this matter!). Did I mention Fred did not earn a lot?
How long will we rationalize our egocentricity as being in a Qodesh condition before יהוה? Do we need to publicly embarrass one another to receive a pittance of justice? Oh יהוה forbid! "What? Were you born in a barn?"
Are we glorious Law keepers when it comes to saying "HalalYahh", or singing 'kum by yah, Yahh' at our Feasts and eating and drinking together like sows at the trough? Worrying about who the 'secret-sister' is? Do we have thousands of verses memorized, yet cannot remember to say a 'thank-you' once in a blue moon? Oh yes, we enjoy the definite one day-off a week! Maybe we even learn an 'Ibriy (Hebrew) phrase or a word or two; but once the Law might actually cost us, suddenly we miss the finer points-- suddenly its forgiveness time (certainly do not expect me to make restitution, be my brother and forget about it) suddenly we have a portion of HaTowrah that "does not apply today"! Again I say: Oh, יהוה forbid, forbid!
Mishliy [proverbs] (proverbs) 3:27 – Do not withhold what is right from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it!
Mishliy [proverbs] (proverbs) 11:18 – The wicked works a deceitful work: but to him that sows righteousness is a sure reward!
Do we, as children of el Shadday יהוה, do as the pagan does, vying for parking spaces, or circling around in an endless loop (while wasting gas) desperately seeking that front parking space rather than parking towards the back and walking a few extra steps and taking a few extra seconds (we certainly would not want to consider giving our phat-buttkisses any {eeeeeeek} exercise, now would we)? Do we narrowly miss an accident whipping into 'our' spot seconds before another? Do we, without thought, park in such a haphazard manner also (appearing as unlearned children– unable to 'color between the lines'?), giving no thought towards anyone else as the pagan does, but only to our own hurried selfish desires? Can they get into the space next ours? Can they get out? Do we park so close that the pregnant woman seriously wonders if she's causing harm to her unborn child if she tries to squeeze in or out? "What? Were you born in a barn?"
Do we in our zeal for feasting together, spend more time in the preparation and set up of our weekly gathering meal then we do in the actual contemplation of Great יהוה's Towrah or the consideration of our sparing rationale before Him? Or are we, even so, just like the world's churches, spending much time on social outings: ice-scream socials, picnics, roller-skating-to-glory, trick-or-trunk parties, baptismal-swimming-with-the-¾-nekked-xtian-daughters-of-jesus jaunts and an endless list of self-aggrandizing distractions, rather than spending the time and energy in concern of what יהוה regards as Qodesh Qodesh?
How do we act when we go into a grocery store or a department store? Do we rush hurriedly up and down the aisles cutting people off, reaching in front of people, sticking our elbows and our shoulders in their faces rather than taking two (or יהוה forbid– as many as even five?) teeny-tiny steps around them? My, now there's a concept– to actually waste the precious two seconds stepping around someone, oh the exhaustion! Must we, also, jostle and fight tooth and nail for that last item? Must we be like the pagan, who ends up on the news during the xmas 'season of love', explaining that she beat-up another mother to obtain the last 'Baby Goes Wee Wee All Over The Place' doll because: "We all do it to show our children how much we love them!" Oh, יהוה forbid, forbid! Do we walk down the center of the aisle, as if our feet are named 'Mo' and 'Lasses'– while blocking the way to either side of us? Do we move at a snails pace because we are only concerned with ourselves (who cares if someone else has important matters to attend to– we have plenty of time). Do we stop in the middle of the aisle to consider our shopping list or contemplate the essence of meaning of the ball of lint in our navel, rather than politely moving over to the side? "What? Were you born in a barn?"
What about in a restaurant, say a buffet; do we jump in front of people, grabbing spoons before they can? When a pan is empty do we grab a utensil and bang and bang and bang and bang and bang, until an employee arrives to fulfill our most heartfelt and assuredly desperate need for more Moo Goo Gai Pan? Are we rude to our servers– demanding, demanding, demanding and it better be right now? Do we deny them a tip if they forget that one tiny pat of butter, the lack of which has destroyrd our meal– not to mention the whole day? In fast-food joints do we elbow for first position at the counter when some one else was there before us? Do we stick our plastic cups under the soda spout before the one who was closer?
Are we like the insufferable pagans who won't turn their cell phones off at a movie? Or screaming into the phone in some crowded room, like a tribe of rampaging monkeys trapped in a tree by a tiger, rather than going outside? "What? Were you born in a barn?"
And what about some of our most basic chores like taking out the garbage? Do we share communal trash cans? If so, do we rake the yard and fill the trash can with eight bags of leaves or the branches of a tree we have just pruned and are too lazy to break or cut into smaller twigs, thus preventing our neighbors from throwing away their garbage? Do we fill the container with large empty boxes because we are too lazy (thats right– you read it here– too lazy!) to tear those boxes apart into small pieces for a better fit? Do we fill the trash can with large plastic bottles and plastic cartons that we are too lazy to crush? Do we sneak around to someone else's trash can when ours is full, preventing them from throwing out their garbage, rather than setting our bags aside until the next pick-up time? Should we expect them to hold their nasty and smelly garbage in their kitchens until the next pick-up day four days hence because we will not be bothered to deal with our own problems (יהוה fordid, forbid!)? If we break a bag, while putting it in the dumpster, and papers fly down the street do we give chase and pick them up? Do we scrape the mess up off of the ground? [ * this occurs to me almost every xmas season, as my neighbors, for weeks, fill my trash can with their jesusshuwash-party trash– hey, I have to pay for that!].
What about our manner of dress? Especially the daughters of יהוה. Most of יהוה's children (of those which I have met), dress no differently than the pagans. His daughters also, often, wear low cut blouses and tight fitting pants– their private parts displayed in a bulging, chaste-less, no line of demarcation, wedged in look. Do our daughters also seek the leering and lecherous approval of the lust crazed men that they walk amongst? Is this rightness before the Face of יהוה? Can the pagans look at us and our women and tell that we are different somehow or are we and our women more afraid of the "prairie dress" moniker than we are of יהוה? Des moi! Even if they do not know that we call on the Name of יהוה el Shadday, can they see enough differences in us to ask "What wonderful thing do they have?" or "Who teaches them?" Who is their 'Elohiym? "What? Were you born in a barn?"
Mishliy [proverbs] 20:11 – Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work is pure and whether it is right.
I used to visit an on-line chat room fairly regularly. And while I, in no way shape or form, claim any special righteousness I do know mannerlessness when I see it. This chat room has a search engine by which people can call up scriptures or Strong's definitions. There are several people who visit this sight and call up so many at one time that they cannot possibly be able to read them! No matter how many people are there and no matter what they might be discussing, BAM! the constant scrolling begins. Twenty, thirty, and more, at a time in a rude and sad effort to pass themselves off as spiritual!
The last Shabbath service that I was in the room for, the owner of the site had to remind people that typed comments caused the posted scriptures to scroll-by too fast to be read. And though most of us were typing in one or two greetings, the number of people in the room caused a problem. Hence his blunt, yet polite reminder. I was only somewhat amused to note that not one individual had any rebuke to give him. Yet when he is not in the room and the "scrollers" come in, if someone asks them to stop scrolling so much (not to stop entirely, mind you) many hide behind the lame excuse "I am not ashamed of my love for my father." or "I am studying and you should be trying to be more holy, not talking about vain things." Studying my eye! This is akin to walking up to a table (uninvited) where several people are conversing and screaming scriptures at the top of your lungs! If you are able to read words flashing by at the rate of fifty to seventy a second, then get a book. Stare at a page for a second– turn to the next page and, there you go, a whole book memorized in an hour! Studying my left eye. Is our egotistical need to be seen and heard, to be placed upon a high pedestal, impressive to יהוה? Shall we be so base; so low in esteeming Him? So "salt-free"? Again, Oh יהוה forbid, forbid!
Just how many examples do I have to list? I am sure that we can all agree these cases in point could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on (whew), ad infinitum, encompassing hundreds of pages of writing and apply most aptly to all of us. As the very set-apart ones of Qodesh Qodesh יהוה el-Shadday, do we need to be as petty and trite as the unbeliever– sometimes even more so? Do we need to be as unfaithful as to hide our mannerlessness behind the excuse of trying to learn more about our 'Elohiym? Can this be? Can we revel in our vacation-go-a-camping feasts and our halalalaYahhs and ignore the least of decorum and courtesy? In truth, so many are born in a barn. Sigh!
How is it that the doctrines of the main-stream religionists are so alive and well in the supposedly "set-apart" ones? The dogma of an everlasting life of joy and ease while romping through green pastures carousing with grass-eating lions and watching the little lambs lie down beside them, while the child wraps an asp around her neck; but hardly, if ever, mentioning the work that is to be done! A work of earth-rebuilding after rebellious Man gets done muking up the place. A work of universe expansion and creation, building new civilizations throughout the far reaches of the many galaxies for us to rule under יהוה! A work by which the melekiym [kings] of יהוה's universal Shammah, (Yechezqê'l [ezekial] 48:35), will require the highest degree of worthiness, honor and righteousness; where the basest of thoughts, the basest of beliefs and the basest of actions will most definitely have no place! Are we too worried about singing 'kum-by-ahhhh-Yahh' and roasting semi-kosher hot-dogs 'round the 'ol feast-fire to hearken to the real issue of our duties before the Face of Mighty יהוה? יהוה forbid, forbid, forbid it!
So, I will humbly ask you to contemplate the few points that I have made here; and let us all seek a just and faithful answer within ourselves and to ask ourselves–
For crying out loud..."What? Was I born in a barn?"
Mishliy [proverbs] (proverbs) 15:13 – The fear of יהוה is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility!
יהוה
bless and keep you!
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