1 Enoch 85

1 Enoch 85

The beginning of Enoch’s second vision tells the story of some bulls

A white bull and a heifer… then a black bull and a red one.  The black one gores the red one until it is no longer found.  The black bull left with the heifer.  The cow laments and searches for the red one, but doesn’t find him.  Then the white bull begets another white bull that resembles him.

The story of these bulls seems to resemble the story of the first human beings.

I was confused about what these first bulls represented because in chapter 89 there are also four bulls that dwelled in the vessel that floated over the waters that covered the earth: a red one, a black one, and a white one… and another white one who became a man.  This white one that became a man is referred to as the same white bull from this chapter.  But the four bulls from the vessel seem to represent Noah and his sons while these first four bulls seem to represent Adam and his sons.

Verse 3

I came to this conclusion as I reread in verse 3, “… and behold a bull came forth from the earth, and that bull was white…” and wondered what it meant that it came forth “from the earth”.  I know that in prophetic visions, it is important to take note of where beasts comes from as this can represent different things.  But then I thought simpler and noticed that the first white bull came from the earth and was not born from another bull like all the other ones.  I concluded that this must be Adam, since Adam was also created from the earth.

Verse 5

I do not remember why, but I have always assumed that the necessary incest for the population of the earth right after creation happened between Eve and a son; and not, as many assume, between brothers and sisters.

Verse 5 says that the heifer that came right after the first white bull that rose from the earth (Adam), went with the black bull, after it had grown, and “many oxen proceeded from him which resembled him and followed him.”  If we assume that the heifer is Eve, then this text is saying that the generations of Cain came from Eve and not from a sister.  And thus Eve can rightfully reclaim her name as the “mother of all who live” (Genesis 3:20)

1 Enoch 85:3 Methuselah’s mother is named Edna.

June 2, 2012

Luke 15

Verse 20

“And he arose and came to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Instead of maintaining his rightful dignity and honor as an oriental patriarch, however, he abandoned social propriety and ran out to meet his son while he was still far away.”  - David K. Bernard

Our God is a desperate God,
He is a God that ridicules and makes a fool of Himself by begging.

Desperate because He is doing everything in His power to bring us back to His Harmony.

And yet we still reject Him in exchange for suffering.

He is desperately crying out to us with all His might;

so loudly it even killed Him at the cross;

so loud the fires of hell burned inside His throat.

He does so because He is not willing to lose us to that hell fire.

He does so because He knows about the impending pain we will go through; it is already hurting Him, He already sees it coming, He is already experiencing it for us, and He is warning us.

He does so because He is willing to set Himself on hellfire to get our attention,

if it means we will be saved.

He is not just as desperate as I am from my own suffering, He is even more desperate, because He is even sympathetic for the suffering that I have numbed from and have tucked away.

He is resorting to ridicule Himself, not because He is foolish, but because we have already crossed those lines ourselves.  What kind of father would be afraid to get a little mud on his shoes to save his child out of the pile of dung that is pinning him down?

He ridicules Himself; it reflects how wrecked our situation really is.

Because if a reasonable God who knows everything is acting like this about us…

What must He know?

And if an omnipotent God is doing all He can do for us…

What is there left to do?

Written on August 26, 2012

2 Kings 3

2 Kings 3: 4-5

"Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and had to deliver to the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.  But when Ahab died the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel."

The "Mesha Stele" (a Moabite stone) was excavated in 1868 about 20 miles east of the dead sea in Jordan,

by Rev. Frederick Augustus Klein.

The stone is dated back to approximately 830 B.C. and is now kept in a museum in Paris.

On the stone is written King Mesha's own account of the rebellion mentioned in 2 Kings 3:4-5

and is as follows:

1. I am Mesha, son of KMSYT (Kemosh[-yat]), the king of Moab, the Di-
2. -bonite. My father was king of Moab thirty years, and I reign-
3. -ed after my father. And I built this high-place for Kemosh in QRH ("the citadel"), a high place of [sal-]
4. -vation because he saved me from all the kings (or "all the attackers"), and because let me be victorious over all my adversaries. Omr-
5. -i was king of Israel and he oppressed Moab for many days because Kemosh was angry with his
6. land. And his son replaced him; and he also said, "I will oppress Moab". In my days he spoke thus.
7. But I was victorious over him and his house. And Israel suffered everlasting destruction, And Omri had conquered the lan-
8. -d of Madaba, and he dwelt there during his reign and half the reign of his son, forty years. But Kemosh
9. returned it in my days. So I [re]built Baal Meon, and I the water reservoir in it. And I bu[ilt]
10. Qiryaten. The man of Gad had dwelt in Ataroth from of old; and the king of Israel
11. built Ataroth for him. But I fought against the city and took it. And I slew all the people [and]
12. the city became the property of Kemosh and Moab. And I carried from there the altar of/for its DVD ("its Davidic altar"?) and I
13. dragged it before Kemosh in Qerioit, and I settled in it men of Sharon m[en]
14. of Maharit. And Kemosh said to me, "Go! Seize Nebo against Israel." so I
15. proceeded by night and fought with it from the crack of dawn to midday, and I to-
16. -ok it and I slew all of them: seven thousand men and boys, and women and gi-
17. and maidens because I had dedicated it to Ashtar Kemosh I took [the ves-]
18. -sels of YHWH, and I dragged them before Kemosh. And the king of Israel had built
19. Yahaz, and he dwelt in it while he was fighting with me, but Kemosh drove him out before me. so
20. I took from Moab two hundred men, all his captains. And I brought them to Yahaz, And I seized it
21. in order to add (it) to Dibon. I (myself) have built the 'citadel', 'the wall(s) of the forest' and the wall
22. of the 'acropolis'. And I built its gates; And I built its towers. And
23. I built a royal palace; and I made the ramparts for the reservo[ir for] water in the mid-
24. -st of the city. But there was no cistern in the midst of the city, in the 'citadel,' so I said to all the people, "Make [for]
25. yourselves each man a cistern in his house". And I hewed the shaft for the 'citadel' with prisoner-
26. -s of Israel. I built Aroer, and I made the highway in the Arnon.
27. I built Beth-Bamot, because it was in ruins. I built Bezer, because it was
28. a ruin [with] the armed men of Dibon because all of Dibon was under orders and I ru-
29. -led [ove]r [the] hundreds in the towns which I have annexed to the land. And I bui-
30. -lt Medeba and Beth-Diblaten and Beth-Baal-Meon, and I carried there [my herdsmen]
31. [to herd] the small cattle of the land, and Horonain, in it dwelt the house of [D]VD...
32. [and] Kemosh [s]aid to me, "Go down, fight against Horonain". And I went down [and I fou-
33. -ght with the city and I took it and] Kemosh [re]turned it in my days. Then I went up from there te[n...]
34. [...a high] place of justice and I [...]