Educating Children: The battle between patriarchy and the polis

I read this article and it got me thinking about education within the context of Hebrew patriarchy. Following is the key quote from the article.

The educational complex from pre-k to graduate school is controlled to a large extent by the Deep State…The Deep State believes children belong to the state. This is an ancient idea that can be traced back to Plato.
Dietrich, John, “Coronavirus Vs. The Deep State Educational Complex”, https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/coronavirus_vs_the_deep_state_educational_complex.html, accessed 08 May 2020

Applying Exodus 21 to David and Yeshua

Within the text of the Sinai covenant, there is an interesting section of the law code detailing the role of the master in providing a wife for his slave (man servant) or son. This is YHVH talking to Moses, telling him what to teach the new nation of Israel. This means it was and is of great importance to Him (Malachi 3:6). Given that He instituted marriage in the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, this should not be a surprise.

Battling lawlessness and cold love with polygyny

In sober tones, Messiah Yeshua warned His disciples that “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). This warning is in the passage about the end times. We know from I John 3:4 that “everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness”. In other words, sin increases and love grows cold.

A Lament for the Lost

Reverend Martin Madan, courtesy of Wikipedia

Three centuries ago, tales of the horrific abuse of young girls and women by male rogues and cads inspired one of the great Christian men of his time to write a book titled Thelyphthora. His name was Martin Madan (b. 1726 – d. 1790). You haven’t heard of him or this book before because Madan prescribed a biblical remedy for the abuse of the fairer and weaker sex by the stronger: polygyny, governed by the regulations contained within the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Torah. The fourth chapter of the first volume of Thelyphthora is a very thorough discussion of polygyny (one husband with one or more wives).

Madan wrote about how his heart broke over and over hearing these stories. He wrote,

Strong Families Weather Tough Times Better

Credit: http://outagamie.uwex.edu/family-living/building-strong-resilient-families/

The above title would seem to be one of those axiomatic statements that are self-explanatory. However, I just read in National Review a plea not to penalize marriage in bills working their way through Congress as I write this.

Families headed by married parents — because they have access to more potential income streams, not to mention more heads, hands, and hearts — will weather the crisis more successfully and be better able to help others outside their circle than will other families.
W. Bradford Wilcox, National Review.com, “The Federal CARES Act Shouldn’t Penalize Marriage”, 3/23/2020

Mr. Wilcox is thinking here of “traditional marriage” as in a single pair of husband and wife, or two income streams. What I don’t think he realizes is that if the family in question is a polygynous family, led by one husband and assisted by one or more wives, there are “more heads, hands, and hearts” and such a family would “weather the crisis more successfully”.

The entire article is here.

Daniel – Politics and Lions

The young Hebrew prophet Daniel has risen to the top of the Medo-Persian government. By now, Daniel is not so young anymore but an older man recognized for his honesty and sagacity. He served Darius, the King of the Medes who had taken the city of Babylon as one of his top three officials who oversaw the satraps of the Medo-Persian Empire. In that capacity, he excelled to such an extent that King Darius was considering elevating him over the entire empire. Daniel’s political rivals, the other two chief officials and the satraps didn’t want this to happen. Because Daniel was incorruptible and performed his job with excellence, his rivals’ only option, as they saw it was to set a trap.

The Smashing Rock and COVID-19

Can a pestilence like COVID-19 help destroy kingdoms like the Rock in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream?

I teach a weekly Shabbat service online in addition to posts I write for different outlets, including this one. From my Shabbat group as well as news broadcasts and online articles, the Wuhan virus, aka COVID-19, as a pestilence is troubling a great many people, and some, to our sorrow, have died. Some are looking to the heavens and expecting a rapture because of this pestilence. I do not believe, nor teach, that the rapture will happen anytime before Yeshua physically returns. We have to go through the refining process here on earth with all our peoples, all Israel and the many Gentile nations. As part of the refining process, Yeshua is going to destroy human governments that are opposed to Him and His rule. He with, and through, the Holy Spirit, is preparing a people ready for him. That includes being ready to be ruled by the terms of the Mosaic Covenant made at Mount Sinai, and reaffirmed several times since, and made into a New Covenant in our hearts. Let’s consider part of the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and interpreted by Daniel, servant of YHVH.

Noah – A Patriarch’s Curse

by Brian S. Somers

Some years have gone by after the flood waters receded and Noah’s family exited the ark. They had adapted to the post-flood climate, and it was harsher than in the antediluvian period. With eight people to provide for, and more on the way, food was a necessity, and Noah became a farmer. We are not told what occupations Shem, Ham and Japheth took, but, undoubtedly, the younger men helped their father. By the time of our story, Ham and his wife had at least one child, Canaan, who was apparently the youngest male (Genesis 9:24). In addition to food crops, Noah also planted a vineyard.

Pages: 12

An American Foster Father and a blind Moroccan Orphan

This article appeared in the Daily SouthTown yesterday. I found it fascinating because it perfectly captured the points of what we teach here at 113 Restoration, namely, the power and responsibility of the father to care for his family, and those he is directly responsible for, as well as how YHVH is the judge of widows and orphans. Beyond this, He commands us not to put a stumbling block in front of the blind.

He executes justice for the orphan and the widow
Deuteronomy 10:18a

Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, And the orphan who had no helper.
Job 29:12

You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:14

The original article can be found at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-morocco-blind-student-fulbright-20200228-czfvsjwzh5ghtdruigggso4mkq-story.html

A Moroccan orphan finds the American Dream is also accessible

By ITTO OUTINI | CHICAGO TRIBUNE | FEB 28, 2020 | 2:32 PM

Itto Outini stands in the Bell Engineering Center at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. (Wendy Echeverria)

Pages: 12

Noah: Obedient Ark Builder

by Brian S. Somers

This is the third entry in the “Vignettes of Patriarchy” series.

Centuries have passed since Adam’s Fall. Mankind has been fruitful and multiplied, though not without some tragic episodes such as the fratricide by Cain against his brother Abel, or Lamech’s killing of a teenager or young man. Then, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, Moses wrote the second “this is the book of generations of” זה ספר תולדת (zeh sepher toldot); the first time was the record of the creation during Creation Week. This genealogical record illuminates something that I think bears emphasis before we continue onto Noah himself.

Patriarchy is about a man being responsible for his family in his generation. But every man has a heritage of fathers backwards into time to Noah, and beyond him to Adam, and may be blessed with a similar heritage in descendants in sons and daughters forward into time. The past is fixed, but the present choices determines much about what the future will be, while the ultimate end thereof is known only to YHVH. Therefore, a genealogical record connects us with the past, with the decisions made by previous patriarchs that informing present-day men and fathers in their decision-making with an eye to the future. Not every man will be great in his generation, but he may have a great ancestor and/or a great descendant. Every human since the Flood is descended from Noah, and to him we now turn.

Pages: 123